


Apprehensive (Akira Kurusu x Reader)

by Chasaka



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Cute, Depression, F/M, Love, XReader, akirakurusu, apprehension, apprehensive, care
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 08:39:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 55,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18869668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chasaka/pseuds/Chasaka
Summary: Did you take too long doing that? Did you remember to do this? What's the exact number of minutes it takes to make your daily commute to school? Not that you can control it if you're late if it's late. You have to drown out all that noise.The day blurs past you until you close your eyes and arrive at the next. Who's that new boy staring at you? You don't remember him being there before. But now you're anxious about him because you forgot to take your pills.You're apprehensive.Yes, you're anxious, depressed and have a lot of anxiety when it comes to being on time. Things have been the same for you for years since moving to Tokyo with your mother when you were little. But on the date April 9th, everything changes and you're not so sure you can handle it all.





	1. A Disturbance in the Air

**Author's Note:**

> Before I begin, I would like to start by saying one thing: I have a very busy life outside of writing and though it is my favorite past time of all, I don't always have a lot of time to do it. I'm also busy at work with another novel currently so I was hoping this would be a fun little side project. It's been awhile since I've written any fanfiction and I'd like to get a handle on it again since I enjoy it so much. The last ones I wrote aren't really a testament to my current abilities of writing so I'm hoping and praying that what I write here will be something I can commit to through the end. I hate starting a project then never finishing.
> 
> But again, this is being written alongside a very important project I've been working on, so if updates aren't timely, try to stay patient with me! >~<
> 
> In addition, this is written only partially based off the actual game storyline. Some details will not be directly accurate but only to favor the nature of the story. Nevertheless, I hope you all enjoy~

You peel your eyes open to the dawn of a new day, tiredness scraping at them as they do any time you awaken. A deep groan leaves you and you force yourself to sit up before you can shut your eyes again, because you know if you do, you'll fall asleep and forget that you even had school.

The first thing that always comes to mind is your calendar. The date April 8th is next to be crossed off since that's today's date. The squeak of the marker on the plastic board indicates you need to get a new one soon. But that isn't half your troubles. You were too exhausted the night before and you wound up forgetting to sort your pills.

When you left your room, your foot skidded across the carpet; you forgot to get dressed. Your heart sinks with relief that you remembered to get dressed, sort of like your life depended on you remembering that. It sort of did. You couldn't afford to show up to school in your pajamas again.

Your eyes drift to the mound of clothes overflowing in your laundry basket that you keep telling yourself you're going to wash until the next minute it's dark and you're tired again. You remind yourself again that you should probably do that, though you probably won't.

You fling open your closet to see what's left of your apparel now that there's an entire two week's worth of it in your basket. You thankfully catch sight of a fresh uniform, which you hate especially while in your slum but you pull them out and dress yourself after stripping down to nothing but your undies. It's uneventful anyway, no need to go into much detail.

Your feet carry you over to the bathroom again and it causes you to take out your phone. How long did you spend getting dressed? In the haze of morning, you always seem to let the time pass you by too quickly. You forget how long you might've been staring off into space or how slowly you might've been going while dressing. Only a few minutes. You breathe another sigh of relief and pull out your pill holder.

Flip. Flip. Flip. And you open up three more after that, leaving out Monday since you'll just be taking Monday's pills anyway. You pull out two pill capsules and twist off the caps, putting one pill into each of the containers; one for depression, one for anxiety. After that, you take one of each and pour some water into a paper cup so you can swallow them. It tastes bitter on your tongue before they go down your throat.

You stare at yourself in the mirror for a good thirty seconds.

'What am I doing now...?' you think to yourself as your eyes flick over your face. You hate looking at yourself in the mirror but you find yourself doing it a lot.

Then you remember your unruly hair and your teeth and how you have to brush them so you do so promptly. But you check your phone again after that to make sure you haven't wasted too much time. You've still got fifteen minutes before you should probably be leaving to catch the train. You still need to put on your shoes and your bag. Do you have enough time to eat something? You'll probably just grab a couple pieces of toast before you go, but you don't like wasting time before you leave encase you take too long to get to the subway.

After getting on your shoes and getting on your bag, you lose your train of thought and end up forgetting to eat something before you leave. But you realize it about five minutes into your walk. You look back, you can still see your house from your current standpoint but it's too late to turn back now. You guess you'll just have to wait until you have a lunch break to actually eat something. But you're used to it so it doesn't bother you all that much.

You arrive at the train station, which is almost always crowded. The sounds of people walking and bustling fills your ears as you descend the stairs into the pool of cheap perfume and nameless faces. Your brain simply doesn't have the capacity to recognize the faces of people trying to get to work every day, or school like you.

You let the crowd of people carry you to your train and don't bother trying to shove through people since you know you'll just be shoved back anyway if you try and probably end up with some kind of broken bone. It happens.

Pulling out your phone again, you check the time and try to calculate the time it takes to get to school. A sigh of relief leaves you. You'll be on time.

Eventually you're pushed into the crowded train that takes you to Shujin Academy. You don't even bother trying to grab a free pole or handle and you know for sure all the seats have been taken, so you just stand awkwardly, drowning out the spokeswoman as she announces that this is the last call for boarding passengers and that the train will be departing shortly.

You pull out your phone again and tab through your apps and games to see if you have anything to do to pass the time but find nothing so you just put in an ear bud instead, hoping that will be somewhat better than all the chatter on the train.

It takes you twenty minutes to arrive at school and when at last you do, you almost glare menacingly at the building itself, like it's alive and might eat you if you're too docile toward it. It ends up eating you anyway since you have no choice but to walk inside. You don't have any friends to talk to, at least not this early in the morning, so you make way for the courtyard to sit until it's actually time to go to class. When it is, your day kind of fades together from there. But it stops when you make it to gym class. You hate it because your teacher actually acknowledges you as a human being and makes you do things your poor body can't even dream of doing.

Twenty laps around the entire gym is your warm up and you're in the volleyball unit so he makes your life and everyone else's a living hell.

Ann walks over to you with a warming smile, noticing you're trying to hide behind the bleachers today like usual. You'd like to find another spot to hide so that not even she will find you, but there's no other place out of sight from Kamoshida.

"Come on, (Y/n). I'm sure it won't be that bad today," she says but you know she's lying.

It's bad every time she says that, it's just what she says to get you to come out of hiding and you know you need that grade so you listen to her. And this time is no different so you roll your eyes and come out of hiding.

Ann is your only friend. She's nice but popular so you think that's the only reason she talks to you. You wish you were as pretty as she was and you try to ask her about her routine or how she gets her hair to look so nice. You do this far and few times in between so you both forget ever having the conversation. But when she does tell you, you remember you'd probably never have the time in the morning for all of that (unless you want to start getting up earlier, which you don't) or even the patience to do anything else that doesn't really require doing in the morning. So you're just sort of doomed to the five dollar shampoo and conditioner in your bathroom and the cheap soap that dries out your skin.

You care, but at the same time you don't enough to actually do anything about it so you don't complain much.

Soon it's your turn to start practice with Kamoshida. The first ball hits you in the forehead which usually happens to everyone who steps onto the other side of the net. But it doesn't make it any less embarrassing. Your face still reddens and the kids who actually know what they're doing still laugh at you.

You get hit a few more times before actually striking a few of the balls. Some go over the net, others fly far from it. Soon it's not your turn anymore and you slink out of the classroom since you know nothing else is going to happen for the rest of the class and you don't feel like watching anybody else get popped in the head by volleyballs.

You wander the hallways until you find a bathroom and stay there until it's time to go to your last class. But on your way there, you hear something strange hit your ears. It's coming from the adjacent hallway and you don't know why you decided to, but you walk over to check it out. When you turn the corner, you see Ann sitting against the floor with her legs hugged close to her chest and her head buried within them. You realize then that the sounds are coming from her. She's sobbing.

You're not really sure what to do so you kind of stand there silently for a few moments, nails digging into your clothed arm as you try to rack your brain for what to do in this kind of situation and you worry that you're unable to comfort your friend. How do you start? Do you lean down to hug her?

You don't. You speak first. "Ann? Are you all right?" She must not have heard you because she doesn't move or do anything to show she acknowledged your question. But then the thought that she actually did hear you crosses your mind and you get an awkward feeling in your belly. You don't know if you should turn and walk away or stay and try to find out why she's crying.

Your morality gets the best of you and you crouch down to tap her gently on the shoulder. This time she notices you and you're glad it hadn't just been that she ignored you the first time. "What's wrong?" you ask her.

She scrambles to wipe tears from her cheeks. "(F/n). I didn't even hear you."

You wait for her to answer your question without speaking, knowing if you don't, she'll eventually be forced to face it.

Ann gives you a sigh before placing her forehead back onto her knees. "It's just Kamoshida giving me a hard time, that's all," she answers softly like you knew she would.

Kamoshida gave everybody a hard time, even you. You figured after this much of the school year that maybe she would have gotten a grip on his behavior and would be able to hold in her tears. Ann was a strong-willed person too, so you deduce that there must be something else wrong.

"Are you sure?" Her breath pauses. It's such a simple question that you know her response must confirm your suspicions.

Ann's eyes flick toward a nearby clock and yours follow hers. "You should get to class. You don't wanna be late, right?" She was definitely avoiding the subject.

You hate it when people pry (whenever they do), so you figure maybe Ann is the same way and nod your head. You move from your crouched position, sending a quick wave her way before heading toward your class. It's just thirty seconds before the bell rings and you're relieved you end up making it in time.

It's a study hall, so there's a lot of talking all class long. You put in an earbud and play some games on your phone. But there's just one conversation piece that keeps getting tossed around which distracts you from playing your games. It's the words "transfer student". It confuses you because why the Hell would there be a transfer student so late in the year? Why not just wait until the next year starts?

You've never been put in a situation where you've had to be a transfer student so you don't really know what circumstances would put you there. You don't spend all that much time thinking about it though.

The study hall ends and you feel like you've just walked through a portal, because now it seems like everybody you pass is talking about this transfer student. Maybe you didn't realize it during the earlier parts of your day, but now you really didn't have a choice. You had nothing to listen to because your phone battery had drained to nothing while playing games with it.

You're relieved when you get back on the train to go home because now the sound of about a hundred other people who don't go to the school are drowning out the chatter of the ones that do. Even if you can't listen to music, you still find watching out the windows of the train to be a lot more enjoyable than listening to mundane conversation.

Soon you're home and you toss aside your bag when you set foot into your bedroom. Your medicine has worn off by now and you're left feeling drowsy. Homework will have to wait, you tell yourself as you proceed to be enveloped by the warmth of your blankets. Hours later, you're awake at 3 AM. You anticipate morning since you can't fall asleep again.


	2. At First Glance

Your alarm blares in your ears but you're already awake so your thumb is quick to close the notification on your phone. You breathe in a deep sigh. You've been up for three hours which you could've spent doing something productive like the homework you've forgotten about or the laundry that's not even on your mind. But it comes to mind when you get out of bed and realize you'll have to pull out a uniform from the mound that doesn't look too wrinkled.

You curse yourself for not taking a shower so now your hair looks like you could cook an egg on top of it. When your routine takes you to the bathroom, you smell yourself. You can't really smell anything too terrible so now you don't have to try and bolt your way through a shower. But you do throw on some deodorant to cover something that perhaps your nose couldn't smell.

After brushing your hair, you scramble around the drawers in your vanity for a hair tie to tie back your hair, even though you loathe it. It's better than looking shinier than Kamoshida's medal. You stare at yourself in the mirror, fixing any stray hairs you find, even taking out your ponytail again to fix a bump in your hair that wouldn't fix itself.

You check your phone and realize you've wasted five minutes doing that. You sigh and rub your eyes.

'What else do I need to do?' you think to yourself as you rub your sleepy eyes. You glance at yourself in the mirror and suddenly remember you have to take your pills and brush your teeth so you do.

You check your phone again and realize there's no time to eat. In fact, if you hadn't bolted out of the bathroom, you probably wouldn't have had time to even grab your bag.

You run out of the house without shoes and realize it only when your feet make contact with your wet lawn.

When you go back inside to get on your shoes, they're on the wrong feet because you were rushing so much. So now you're uncomfortable and soaked and there's no time to fix them until you get to school.

The train ride was a long twenty minutes, mostly because your mind spent so long thinking about your discomfort that you couldn't possibly lose track of time.

As soon as there's a bench to sit down on, you start discarding your shoes and socks, hoping the sun will dry them before you have to get to class, but you know they won't so you'll have to rough through most of your say with damp socks. In the cover of your shoes, you know the water won't get a chance to evaporate. At least you retained some knowledge from primary school.

You breathe in a deep sigh and try not to think about the outcome of your poor memory and in doing so, you look away from them as though they're some kind of plague. Your eyes take in the normal sights of the courtyard, the few trees whose limbs sway in the gentle breeze, the blades of grass lining the soil, the well-kempt pathway and then something you've never seen before which catches you completely off guard.

As is quite obvious, you don't even have enough brain capacity to remember to put on your shoes before leaving the house, so you certainly have no hope of remembering the faces of every single person that goes to Shujin Academy. But you know for a fact you've never seen the person standing just a few yards away from you. He's a tall, lanky boy with dark, unruly hair and eyes you can barely see from that distance thanks to the wide-framed glasses resting upon the bridge of his nose and of course that hair. His eyes are gray, not a dull, unremarkable grey like that of concrete or stone. They were the grey of the last ashes on a fire, tossed up on the breeze; the gray of a pigeon's wing, soft as down; the gray of the ocean an instant before dawn's first rays strike the water. Those eyes glance your way once, and ensnare you from that moment in a net of intrigue. He's leaned against a wall with a coffee cup in his hand, sipping on it.

At this point, you've all but forgotten the talk of a transfer student and find yourself staring at this boy before your brain can work well enough to remember such an uneventful bit of information. But you haven't realized that you're losing track of time again and his eyes flick toward you, even though you can't really tell it happened again. It's then when you realize you were staring and you can't check your phone to see how much time you spent doing so. But you do anyway since you figure it's more favorable than holding a gaze with some random kid.

You start to forget about his existence, getting lost in the wave of memes you find as you scroll through one of your apps. They bring small smiles to your face while you look at them whilst occasionally taking glances at the time on your phone.

As you were so wrapped up in it, you didn't even notice the body sit beside you which is why you started when you finally did. You quickly turn your head to see who was sitting there and find Ann which is a strange occurrence since she's usually talking to her other friends right now.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She must have noticed your body jerk. "I wanted to talk to you about yesterday."

Your eyebrows scrunch a bit. You weren't really expecting her to open up to you at all about that, let alone so soon. Or maybe she was just going to tell you to back off and not speak of it. You were fine with either of those situations so you nod your head, showing her that you're listening. 

"Kamoshida... you know how he is, I'm sure," she says to begin. "Well... you don't," she continues.

This just makes you even more confused.

"You know how Shiho and I are on the volleyball team?" You nod along with her words. "He threatened to kick her off yesterday... she's my best friend so I didn't want that to happen." Her eyes start to tear up a little. "But he said he would if I didn't have sex with him."

Your eyes widen immediately and your stomach sinks to your feet. You want to get up and tell someone, you want to punch Kamoshida in the face for this. You want to scream. And you almost wish Ann's lying too.

"You didn't though... right?" you ask her.

Relief washes through you as she quickly shakes her head no. "Of course not! Even for a friend, I couldn't do something like that. But still... it makes me worried for her," Ann explains to you.

Her worry is valid anyway and you hope she doesn't falter in her decision. After all, if Kamoshida was gutsy enough to say something like that to Ann, who knows what he could do to Shiho, or what he's done to any of the other students at Shujin Academy. You're weary of yourself for a quick moment, but the guy doesn't acknowledge you enough in a single class period for him to actually commit to that. Plus, he doesn't really have any way of black mailing you since you don't really care all that much about your gym grade, at least if it came down to something like that anyway. But for Ann, it's different. She has the pleasure of seeing him for both gym class and volleyball practice.

"I would tell her to be careful of him, and keep an eye on her too. If he would say something like that to you, maybe he's done things like this before." It's unlikely since you haven't heard of it until now. But then again, you don't really pay much attention at this school.

You pause for a moment to check the time on your phone and realize it's almost time for classes to begin. She looks at you, being able to somehow tell it's nearly time to go without looking at a clock. "I should get going... and (F/n)?" she asks and you look at her. "Please don't tell anyone about this."

You nod your head even though you want to and she leaves after that. You don't see her again until gym class but after what she's told you, you're inclined to skip, but you don't because you're too much of a pussy. You spend the period observing the interactions between she and Kamoshida and you can't say you enjoy the way he eyes her up.

You keep quiet about it though and the rest of your day passes by uneventfully once more. When you're home, you finally remember to start your laundry and end up catching up on your late homework but fall asleep on your desk while you're doing your homework from today.

Your mother's home from work a little earlier today, but she knows better than to wake you from your naps, or rather, she doesn't care enough to. You learn your own lessons and don't rely on her much to tell you what you already know such as the fact that your midday napping is messing up your sleeping schedule.

You wake up to April 10th, a Wednesday and cross off the last couple days on your calendar since you forgot to the day before. You remember to wake up a little earlier so that you can clean yourself before school and you spend a lot more time than you should in the shower.

You end up forgetting your bag and finally realizing until it's far too late to turn back. You might as well just skip school without it and you find yourself loathing your entire being for having done so, more than you already do and so do your teachers.

It's a day full of scolding from then on, aside from the classes that don't really require you to have your materials at hand. But you usually daydream your way through those classes anyway.

You decide to take your own advice and stop falling asleep after school (this will only last a day, I promise), and instead of taking your normal train home, you decide to catch a later one which departs in an hour to your destination. You stupidly don't set an alarm for that and continue your walk through Aoyama-Itchome, the neighborhood in which your school sits and wind up in Yongen-Jaya.

You don't do this often so you're rather nervous about just milling around town without aim. Out of all the extravagant places to go, you find a little coffee shop tucked away between two taller buildings and decide to walk in. You're not sure why this place out of all other spoke out to you. Maybe it was the fact that it just seemed so opposite from the bustle going on outside and plus, you only had a little money left from what you'd spent on lunch earlier that day.

You weren't really a big coffee drinker or even tea. Both seemed too bitter for you so you were sort of doomed to forever submit to your drowsiness whenever she may strike. But usually places like these had other, more favorable drinks to enjoy which is what you were hoping.

The smell of coffee grounds enters your nose almost as soon as you open the door and hear the little bell at the top ring, letting the employees know you've arrived. You find immediate anxiety when you realize the place is completely empty save for an older looking man donning facial hair and a pair of glasses behind the counter.

"Kurusu, we have a customer!" The yelling startles you a bit after you've found yourself spending too much time taking in your surroundings and you look up to see the man looking at you. "You can have a seat, you know," says the man.

You nod your head, playing off your daydream like state as you simply observing the detail of the place, your feet making their way to the front counter in slow motion. "I was just looking at the decor..." you say softly.

You look off to your right when you hear footsteps and when you do, your brain sparks a bit. You remember seeing that dark hair from school the day before. The person whose head it was atop walked behind the front counter. He was wearing a similar apron to that of the man who'd called for him.

Now that you were closer, you could see that the boy donned grey, metallic-like eyes which hid almost sheepishly behind the frames of his glasses and were surrounded by thick lashes akin to that of a porcelain doll and that contrasted his pale, flawless skin. You could feel your throat get a little tight, having not realized before that this boy wasn't too bad looking.

His eyes were on you with a little pad and pen in his hands. "Welcome," he greeted you. "Is there anything I can get for you?" You weren't expecting such a husky voice to come from a boy that looked so young.

It made you forget he was talking to you and your eyes stayed captivated by his for a little while before you remembered just a little too late that he was a human being. "Oh... yeah," you answered and your eyes quickly flicked up toward the menu, ready to spitfire the first thing that sounded like something you might drink to keep things from getting any more awkward. "Hot chocolate, please," you said.

His eyes left you and traveled down to his pad of paper so he could write down your order and this caused you to relax a bit. "Anything else?" His eyes returned to you once more.

Unable to bring your lips to speak again, you shook your head and with that, he craned his head to look at the older employee as if to tell him something. "That's on you," the older man said and left to go into the back room, closing the door behind him.

You heard a sigh leave Kurusu when the man left and he began to prepare what you'd asked for.

To take your mind off the awkward situation, you looked up at the menu again and noticed that what you asked for was a bit over what you had in your pocket. Immediately you felt really stupid but you'd feel bad if you told the poor kid to stop what he was doing because you were too stupid to make sure you had enough to cover the price of some hot chocolate. But you couldn't just start drinking it, that would be stealing.

His hand placed it down for you and you sort of hoped he might just go back to where he came from, but he didn't, he stayed there, leaning against the adjacent end of the counter. You figured maybe you could just play it off and maybe he'd forgive the difference, but Kurusu didn't seem to you like the forgiving type.

"So uh... I just realized I don't have enough money to pay for this..." you say sheepishly and stare down at the steaming cup, watching out of the corner of your eyes though as the boy looks at you with what you're sure are judgemental eyes.

"What do you have on you?" he asks.

You're actually surprised he doesn't just kick you out of the cafè and there's no response from you after that for a long moment before you pull the remainder of your money out of your pocket. You see him shrug and take it from you. "Don't worry about it... I might get in trouble for it later but it's fine."

This surprises you even more and you arch an eyebrow in confusion. "Are you sure? I could just not drink it and get something else," you reply. But Kurusu doesn't seem to care much about your response.

"It's already made anyway, so just drink it." You get the feeling he took your money out of laziness. He didn't want to make anything else.

Kurusu leans back against the counter again and you begin to sip your hot chocolate, forgetting that it's actually hot and try to stifle your reaction to scalding your tongue and the roof of your mouth as the liquid hits them.

"You go to Shujin, right?" He must've noticed your uniform.

You're glad he'd said something because if he hadn't, you're sure you probably would have tried to burn your mouth again to avoid the awkwardness of sitting there waiting for your hot chocolate to cool off. So you set it down and lift your head to meet his gaze again which is already upon you.

"Yes, I do," you answer him.

He brings his index finger and thumb to meet his chin and strokes it for a moment before speaking again. "I knew I saw you yesterday. You know Ann Takamaki, right?" he asks you.

You're not really sure how to answer this because you don't know what he wants. Maybe he's trying to get you to ask her out, a more likely scenario, but you can't be sure. But since he seems to remember you from the day before, it's likely he saw you talking to her, so you can't exactly lie and say you have no idea who the Hell that is. "Yes, I know her," you answer.

Then he gets really close after taking a brief glance around the cafè, your foreheads almost touch and when he utters his next words, you can smell his subtle citrusy breath. "What do you know about she and Kamoshida?"

Though his lips are enticing when he speaks, his words are terrifying and, again, you're unsure of how to respond. You gave Ann your word, you shouldn't say anything and because of that, you're not going to. But it does make you wonder why exactly he asked this. "No, I have no idea," is your answer and he sighs.

He looks down with his forearms rested upon the polished oak counter. His nails tap rhythmically against the counter once before he looks at you again. "Listen... I'm trying to help her. I've only been at that school two days, but I can already tell Kamoshida is a poison to his students. So if you know something, please tell me." He looks almost pleadingly at you when he says this.

You want to keep your word to Ann but at the same time, you're a little worried that the situation could be more serious than you think. Now, you're not exactly one to be very analytical, but it does make you wonder: what could this Kurusu possibly know that you don't? As he said, he's only been at your school for two days (which reminded you of all that talk about a transfer student).

"...If I told you, what would you be able to do about it?" you ask him.

"Is that you admitting that you do know something?" Kurusu replies, but you don't. You stay silent and wait for his response. You asked him first, so you deserve an answer first, you think. He gets this logic after a few moments of eye contact between you both. He seems to have no problem with that, but it's making you nervous even though you know keeping your confidence (which is almost always non-existent) is for Ann's sake.

"I haven't fully worked out the details yet... but let's just say I can help," he says.

Now is when you can't take it anymore and force yourself to focus on the suddenly interesting counter top. You keep your gaze there to collect your thoughts and decide if you should tell him what you know. He's a stranger, so there's no telling what he could do with the information. You glance at his eyes once more, he's looking at you, waiting for the answer he knows you have. He looks like a genuine person. But you know from experience that looks can be deceiving, so now your brain is out of sorts wondering what the best choice is here. You want to be loyal to your only friend but something about the look in this boy's silvery eyes tells you that she can be helped in the long run and you of course want the best for your friend, even if it means betraying her trust a little.

"I'll tell you..." you say finally.

But then the door to the back room opens and the older employee walks out again. "Kurusu," he says sternly, quickly turning the boy's attention to him. "You're not out here harassing this young lady, are you?" Before Kurusu can open his lips to defend himself, the man cuts him off. "I swear, I leave you out here for two minutes and already you—"

You're fast to jump to his defense, and you don't know why. "No sir, he wasn't harassing me." You catch Kusuru's eyes on you from the corner of your own, like he's shocked that you stood up for him.

The man lets go of his rough front and turns to you. "Call me Sojiro," he says.

You're not sure exactly why the man is telling you his name, but after finally tasting a sip of your hot chocolate without singeing your tongue, you're sure it'll be useful when you visit the cafè again.

There's no conversation between you and Kurusu again until after you've finished, he's simply standing there washing the same mug as he waits for Sojiro to leave again. When your cup is empty, the older man is quick to reprimand Kurusu for it. "Take care of her cup. I'm going to restock, and don't cause any trouble, got it?"

Kurusu simply nods as Sojiro leaves and walks over to you. You wonder why that man gives him such a hard time. This person was so strange and he intrigued you. "It was really good. I'll have to—"

Suddenly he's closer to you again to keep you from speaking any longer. "Meet me in the courtyard tomorrow morning, you can explain to me then," he says.

By then, you'd nearly forgotten about the conversation you both were having before Sojiro walked in. But now that it was fresh on your mind again, you nod your head subtly and he swipes your cup from you and starts to clean it like he was doing to the other one. "I'm Kurusu Akira, by the way," he says in a less hush tone.

You didn't really need an introduction, but at least now you knew his first name. You figure you should probably introduce yourself as well. "(L/n)(F/n)," you answer.

You get up after that, showing you're ready to leave finally and after the two of you exchange goodbyes, you exit the shop and check your phone.

You're pissed because you realize your train has already departed.


	3. Neglecting Those Little Things

Apparently your mother had been worried sick when at last you arrived home, it was really late and you're confused as to why she hadn't called or texted you. But then she tells you your phone bills hadn't been paid and you understand suddenly why your rhythm games weren't working on the train ride home.

She scolds you for a good ten minutes before you ultimately head to your room. You're kind of relieved not to see a mound of clothes on your floor anymore but the stress really hits you when you notice the unfinished homework left on your desk from the night before.

You'll do it later, you decide and head to sleep early. Sleep is always more favorable than worrying about everything else.

Your first alarm goes off and you decide to press the snooze button to catch an extra five minutes of sleep. For someone who's constantly worried about time management, you really didn't seem to have much of an issue reaching for that alarm and shutting it up for just a little while longer.

When at last you awake, you blaze through your normal morning routine since you pressed that damned button a few extra times. You look frazzled, like you've been rushing around (which you have) and when you get on the train to take off for school, everything starts to grow suffocating, more than it usually does. The amount of people around you, all the talking; it brings up your heart rate and your breathing skyrockets.

Then it dawns upon you that you've forgotten a critical part of your day: you forgot to take your pills. The realization only makes you more anxious and you try not to look paranoid while you're on the edge of a panic attack. Your hands get clammy and shake, but nobody around you asks if you're all right. They're all too caught up in their own lives to worry about one measly civilian, a child no less.

There's no relief when you get off your train, in fact, school makes it worse. You can't call your mother to tell her what's happened either. You don't know what the Hell to do. Your world feels like it's spinning and you're stumbling like you're drunk as you try to make it to the courtyard so you can sit down and try to collect yourself.

The voices of other students boom in your head and a singular brush against your arm is enough to set your body on fire. When you sit down, you finally get a grasp that you're fully panicking, and for no reason at all. You can never really tell, even though it happens a lot whenever you don't take your medicine.

Little are you aware that a pair of eyes are watching you curiously from across the courtyard whose owner you'd all but forgotten about. He approaches you, confused as to why you seem like you just tipped back twenty shots. He's about to ask about more serious business when he realizes you don't actually look so good.

"(L/n)? Are you all right?" The voice startles you and makes your heart race even harder. You feel like you're about to die. You can't really concentrate enough to fabricate a lie so you're forced to tell him the truth.

"I think I'm having a panic attack." Your voice is shaking with the rest of you and as soon as you say these words, Kurusu sits down beside you and places a hand on your back while the other rests just above your chest.

You're not sure how or why, but the pressure his hands create by being in those places is actually starting to calm you down. You try to catch your breath and cool down your burning face and when Kurusu realizes that you're calming down, he puts space between the both of you again, still sitting of course.

"Did something happen?" he asks you, but you shake your head.

"It's nothing," you say and look over at him. "You said you wanted to know about Ann so I'll tell you."

Kurusu seems unconvinced by your response but decides to move from the subject anyway, making mental note of the fact that he'll have to ask about it later. "Go on then, I'm listening," he says.

Your thoughts drift back to the very girl whose secret you're about to exploit and you get nervous about not keeping your word again. You look away from Kurusu and he can see the worry in your eyes.

"You're sure that if I tell you, you'll be able to help, right?" you ask him.

He sighs, beginning to understand why you're so hesitant. "Don't worry. If things don't end up working out, I'll make sure she doesn't know you were the one that told me, okay?" he assures you.

This makes you feel a little better so you nod your head and look at him again. Almost word for word, you explain to him what happened just as Ann told you. By the time you're finished, Kurusu's fingers are upon his chin while in deep thought and it makes you wonder just what he's plotting in that head of his.

"Well, thank you," he says at last before standing up. You know it's probably time to get to class soon but you feel like there's something that still needs to be said to the boy you're in front of.

"You're a transfer student, right?" you ask him to which you receive a nod. "I see... well, if you need any help finding things, just let me know I guess."

Kurusu returns to you a small smile which you feel seems fitting upon his lips rather than his normal poker face and he nods once more. "You can walk with me to homeroom if you want to," he offers before turning his back to you.

It catches you off guard and there's no time to make any sort of excuses before he's wandering off with or without you. You decide to show some gratitude for the gesture and walk with him, even though you don't necessarily want to. Nobody ever offered those sorts of things to you so you figured maybe you should take up the opportunity while it lasted. The walk was quiet, there was no dialogue between you two until you were standing outside the classroom door and he turned to face you. "When's your lunch period?" he asks you out of absolutely nowhere. Was this guy serious?

But then something dawns upon you. Kurusu's a transfer student of only three days now so it's likely he doesn't really have anyone to talk to, making him a bit like you. You don't normally stay in the canteen for your lunch period but you suppose if it means making him a little less lonely that you'll stay. "After my third class," you say.

"Do you care if I have lunch with you? We have it at the same time." He doesn't bother to explain himself, but by now you're kind of sure your suspicions are correct. You don't need him to embarrass himself by saying he has no friends so you decide to agree to having lunch with him.

Your day doesn't get much better from there. The lack of medication going through your body has put you in a haze and you're a lot more prone to panic attacks. It's strange though, when you were near Kurusu, you didn't feel that urge, in fact, you were completely calm.

Your morning drones on though and at last you find peace within the class just before lunch. Nobody's talking except your teacher, whose voice is so monotonous that you can easily become lost in his words. It's begun to rain outside and your spot near the window makes it easy to listen to the soft pattering of those droplets against the glass. Your eyes stay upon them, not daring to strain and flick to each one that lands, instead taking them in as a whole. You feel completely relaxed now, with not a single worry crossing your mind and you wish you could feel this way more often without the use of pills. The tranquility of it all draws you into a tired haze and you're compelled to fall asleep, your body begging for a more comfortable position. You want to abide, but you know if you do, you'll sink into sleep and miss the lesson, not that you were paying very much attention anyway.

You end up giving in eventually and resting your head on your arms, your eyes leading you into darkness.

Your heart feels like it's about to explode when not five minutes later, a huge book is slammed onto your desk, shooting you up from your rested position. "(L/n)! No sleeping in class!" You should've known better not to sleep in your Human Relations class. Your teacher always catches you.

Your face reddens when you notice all the other students staring at you with smirks on their own faces and suddenly you're starting to get that trapped feeling again. You don't like being at school without your medicine and you're not sure why you haven't gone to the nurse yet to use the school phone to call your mother. You already know from past experiences that you can't, but perhaps it was that you simply wanted to see if you could withstand a day without taking those bothersome pills.

Nodding your head at your teacher, you try to will away the anxiety working its way through you and your thoughts begin to race again. Your eyes flick toward the clock to see how much time is left of your class. You discover there really isn't all that much and you're relieved. You try to get lost in the serenity of the rain once more, but you think too hard on it and fail miserably.

Thankfully, you're able to remember that you're supposed to be meeting with Kurusu during lunch because you're sure if you hadn't that you would have simply gone to the library like you usually do. By now you've begun to calm your nerves a bit but when you can't see the boy you're supposed to be meeting with, you start to get nervous again. You can't help it, your thoughts simply begin to race, thinking the absolute worst every time something seems to lean in the wrong direction.

Your eyes dart about each table, searching and searching for that unruly head of hair but you can't seem to spot it anywhere. When your body begins to shake a little, you turn on your heel to run away and instead face plant with someone's chest. You back up and start to apologize profusely before walking to the side with your head faced downward, trying to escape the open room until you hear a voice. "Where are you going?" Your head shoots up immediately and you look up to see Kurusu standing there, looking at you from behind his glasses.

"Oh... Sorry, I didn't think you'd come," you reply.

Kurusu cocks an eyebrow at you, his head tilting a little. He was probably wondering why you were going to leave. "You sure are jumpy you know." You know he says this because he doesn't actually understand, and you're about to open your mouth to explain until he waves you along. "Come on, let's find a table," he says. He leads the way around the canteen, looking for a suitable spot for the both of you to sit down. You both walk toward the far end of the canteen where there are some windows and a lone table waiting for the both of you to sit at.

You have to admit, now that you're alone with him with nothing to talk about, it is a little bit nerve racking for you. You place your bag in your chair so that you can go and get something to eat since you didn't have the chance to in the morning (come to think of it, it's rare you ever get to actually eat before school), and Kurusu does the same.

You choose the curry that was on the menu today along with a side of cooked rice. You hate it, but it's really the only thing the school knows somewhat how to make. Kurusu had chosen a sandwich from the deli line.

Even though it's awkward, you still find eating with the boy you formally met yesterday at his little cafe he worked at was a lot better than spending the period alone in the library. You figure you should probably try and start some kind of conversation with him, a bit surprised already that he hasn't tried to since he seemed so ambitious the first time you both met. "So, how has your day been so far?"

Kurusu stays silent for a little while longer while finishing the bite of food occupying his lips. "I really didn't peg you as the type of person to start mindless conversation," he says.

This boy is always so full of surprises, you can never anticipate what he's going to do or say next. It intrigues you. Regardless, it still ambushes you and leaves you at a loss for words for a moment or two. "Oh... sorry, it was just small talk. I thought it would be better than just staying silent the whole time," you admit.

"I can tell you have a lot on your mind... you don't have to fill the gaps with things like that. Say what you mean." An invitation like this throws you for a complete loop and you have no idea how to reply after that. Are you really that easy to figure out? Does Kurusu already know your life story based on just your brief interactions with one another? That thought alone is enough to scare you into ditching the lunch table and avoiding Kurusu for the rest of the year. But for some reason, you stay put.

Despite your lack of response, the boy's eyes are still on you for those moments of silence with nothing but the chatter of hyper teens around you to drown it out. Disregarding all of that, you still feel as though you and him are the only ones in the room and it freaks you out a little. He breaks your eye contact to eat again. How is conversation so easy for him? One thing is for sure, you know what he said made it seem like he was able to read everything on your mind right now.

"Well... I guess there is one thing," you say to him. His grey eyes look up at you immediately and you see his throat swallow so that he can respond to whatever it is you might say next. "What school did you go to before coming to Shujin?"

He looks as though he could have choked on his food had it still been caught in his mouth, like he hadn't been expecting you to ask about him. Perhaps then he had been trying to get you to talk about yourself, but the likelihood of that was almost nothing at all. Why would you talk about yourself anyway? It seemed selfish.

But now he's the one at a loss for words and you can't be sure why. "Is something wrong?" you ask.

Kurusu shakes his head. "It's nothing. I guess I just wasn't expecting you to ask something like that."

"Well... what were you expecting me to say?"

"I don't know. Maybe something a little more personal to yourself," Kurusu replies. You're quiet again because you don't know what else to say. "How about this, I'll tell you where I'm from and why I came to this school if you tell me why you're so jumpy," he compromises.

You look displeased with it though, and it doesn't feel like a compromise at all. "That doesn't seem very fair..." you say.

"Why not?" asks Kurusu.

"Because what if mine is more personal than yours," you reason.

"Well, we both want to know these things, right?" You start to think on it a little bit and you're kind of upset you let yourself fall into that trap. The rest of your day could have gone by way more smoothly if he just didn't know why you were acting so strange. It would've been all over when you got home. He takes your silence as a yes and continues talking. "I'd say that's a fair trade of information then."

You sigh, knowing he's right then your eyes look up at Kurusu's through his large glasses. "You first..." you say and he doesn't seem to have a problem with obliging.

"I came from a small town in Japan. I went to a school called Azabu." He paused, making it seem as though he were finished, and you were about to begin your own explanation when you were quickly cut off. "While I was walking home one night, I saw a drunk man trying to sexually assault an innocent woman..." he trailed off. It seemed like a pain to talk about. "I couldn't just stand there and watch... so I pushed the man, but he wound up falling and busting his head... turns out the guy was a lawyer and he sued me for assault and because of his position, he won the case. So, I was forced to move to Tokyo and go to Shujin."

You were absolutely astonished by his explanation. You could never have expected something like that to be a reason for someone to move, at least not him. "And your parents too? They forced you all to leave for that?" you ask but Kurusu shook his head.

"My parents still live there," he says.

Now you're confused. "Then... where are you living?"

Kurusu gives a slight chuckle. "I thought it might be obvious. Leblanc of course," he replies.

You tilt your head a little, oblivious to the fact that this was the name of the cafe you'd seen him working at but a day earlier. "The cafe?" he says, noticing your puzzlement.

"Oh! Really? You live there?"

He nods. "In the attic. But enough about me, it's your turn now," Kurusu says. You figure it's because he doesn't want to say anything more about himself and you sort of wish the two of you had gotten lost in conversation so that you could avoid having to disclose your end of the deal. But you feel a little more comfortable now since it seems you aren't the only weird one among you both.

"All right..." you trail off. "I have clinical depression and anxiety... and I forgot to take my medication this morning. That's why I'm jumpy," you explain finally.

"Oh, that's all?" he asks. "Not that that's a good thing, I was just expecting something much worse," he says. "Is there anything I can help with?"

A small smile spreads across your lips and you're happy to hear that he's conscientious of your condition and isn't brushing it off. From all your interactions with one another, you're able to deduce that Akira Kurusu is a really helpful person, sometimes perhaps too much for his own good. "I'm all right for right now, but thank you."

He offers you a kind smile back and the rest of your lunch period is spent finishing your food and talking about other useless things. You're starting to think you have a friend in Kurusu but you're not sure if he feels the same way. That is until the two of you are about to leave after the bell rings.

"I'll see you around, Kurusu." You say this hopefully that he'll want to see you or talk to you again, whichever if not both you would be happy with.

You see him look at you from the corner of your eyes and turn to see if he was trying to get your attention that way, only to see him with another smile on his face. It really does suit him. "You can call me Akira," he says.

You're not sure where all of this trust came from so suddenly but you think you might feel weird referring to him by his first name so quickly now. But you want to return the courtesy. "Oh... sure, Akira, um... I guess that means you can call me (F/n)," you say.

"That's fine, don't feel forced. I just wanted you to know you could trust me is all," he says to you before waving and finally parting ways with you.

You're glad you accepted lunch with him. What you both shared felt like one of the most meaningful conversations you've ever had with somebody.

You're in a good mood and everything seems well until you reach gym class. You start feeling anxious again because you remember suddenly your morning conversation with Akira about Ann. He'd said that he wouldn't let her find out it had been you that he got the information from, but some part of you still felt like perhaps she knew what you had done and that worried you.

When you tried hiding in the corner, Ann still came looking for you as usual, which gave you a little bit of hope. But also none at the same time. You didn't want to participate in a class where some pedophile was trying to make passes at your friend. And you would always take notice whenever she would tense up, you were almost certain it was because she could feel his eyes on her.

You really hoped Akira could do something about this, but if it was anything bad, you knew the school might look down upon that since he likely had a criminal record now. Even if it wasn't his fault, the adults never really understood.

When at last your school day was over, you began your walk to the afternoon commute. You almost considered heading over to Yongen-Jaya for another cup of hot chocolate to calm you down but not only did you have no money left, you also didn't have a means of contacting your mom, nor did you want to risk getting home at a late hour again.

So you end up taking your normal route home and you have to admit, you feel really stupid. The weekend is coming soon so you feel like maybe you should have asked for Akira's number but of course you didn't. Then again, maybe it would be a better time for catching up on sleep than hanging out with friends.

When your commute is over, you're still feeling stressed out. You know it's toward the end of the day, but you take your medicine like you were supposed to that morning.

And suddenly you're feeling much calmer.


	4. Swaying

You're starting to notice it more and more as the weeks go by: you're starting to overflow in the pants of your school uniform. You notice it in the bathroom just after taking your medicine (which you're grateful to have remembered).

You're looking at your waist and after relaxing your stomach a bit, you can see it trying to push through the hem of your pants. These uniforms aren't exactly cheap either so with a sigh, you exit the bathroom and head to the back door where you know your mother is sitting out having a cigarette. The smell of the smoke violates your nose immediately, it seems like she smokes the extra smelly ones. But you act like it doesn't bother you.

"Mother, I think my uniform is becoming too small for me," you say to her and she turns her head to you.

She sighs deeply like it's a huge inconvenience which, you know with how hard she works that it most definitely is. "(F/n), you know how costly those are. How did you gain weight?" she asked as she flicked some ashes off the end of her cigarette and took another drag.

"The side effects of the anti-depressants, they cause weight gain..." you trail off and start to mess with your fingers while your eyes stay on them. You feel bad for bringing this up to her. She works so hard to support you already. "Um... just never mind it can wait," you say.

"No, it's obviously important. Come on now," your mom replies. "But I just don't have the money, dear. You'll have to get a job."

Your heart sinks when you hear this. "A...A job? Mom, you know I can hardly even make it through a day at school even just talking to anyone without getting anxious and you think I'm fit for work?" you ask.

"If not, I guess you'll have to suck it in, (F/n). Besides, it might help your anxiety to get used to talking to people more. Now go finish getting ready." She checks her phone like you do. "It's almost time for you to get to the train station," she says.

You nod your head and finish getting ready for your day. You'd like to talk more to your mother about the whole job thing, but you have a feeling the conversation might loop around into you having to get a job again. But you don't even know where you could ever work without suffering a mental breakdown within the first few moments of coming into contact with some stranger.

But you're close minded, at least then, because getting a job doesn't really have to mean interacting with people. If anything, you'd probably opt for a job online rather than one in person.

You sit in the courtyard waiting for your day to begin as you always do and you're soon met with Akira's body planting itself down beside you. It seems like his movements are rigid and when you look at his face, you notice his abnormally sleepy eyes, poorly masked by those wide-framed glasses. "Stay up all night studying for something?" you inquire, forgetting that the boy is still really new.

But he nods anyway. "A test for English," he says. "What about you? I assume after yesterday you remembered to take your medicine... but you still seem like something's off." How could he be so good at reading you? You might as well just be an open book on a table with his eyes violating you.

"Do I seem that way? I don't mean to be, I'm all right," you assure him.

Even though he's interrogating you, you still feel like he's left something unanswered. He snags a few strands of his hair between his fingers and begins messing with it gently. You've seen him do it a few times and wonder if it's a nervous tick. It just makes you much more curious about him. "Guess it was nothing..." he mumbles. After probably realizing he was performing this nervous tick, he slid his hands into his pockets. "I'm gonna be off. There's someone I need to talk to... see you later," his husky voice says before passing you a wave as he leaves.

You wonder for a split second who he could possibly be going off to talk to before all your attention is stolen from his figure slowly being swallowed by a crowd of students and forced upon Ann. She's facing you and you feel almost like she's had her sights on you for awhile. "So, you've been hanging around the new kid, right?" she asks you and you nod your head in puzzlement. "What's he like?" she asks. "Does he do drugs?"

Your face shows utter shock at this point. How could she say such a thing. "What? Ann, why would you think that?" you ask defensively.

"A lot of people have been talking about him... saying he's a delinquent and everything. Apparently he has assault charges on him," she says.

You shake your head. "I think you're misunderstanding..." you trail off and look her in the eyes. "Akira's actually a really nice person," you offer. She seems shocked by your answer.

"You're calling him by his first name? No wonder you're being so oversensitive about him..." She mumbled the last part. But you hear her words and a light shade of pink spreads across your cheeks.

"What? N-No, that's not—"

"It's fine, you don't need to justify yourself. It's just... well, he talked to me the other day asking me what my relationship with Kamoshida is... I don't know how but I feel like maybe he caught onto something since I'm around him so much. Made me feel like he was trying to hit on me."

Ann's words are astonishing to you. You never knew she could so easily judge somebody. You're about to open your lips to spew more words about how Akira's not how she and everyone else are making him out to be, but she speaks before you do. "Look, all I'm saying is to be careful around him." She places a hand on your shoulder. "You're one of my closest friends, (F/n), I don't want you to get hurt," Ann says.

You sigh, knowing she's got him pegged all wrong, but you greatly appreciate her compassion for you and offer a smile back. "Well, thank you... I need to go to class but I'll see you later," you say.

Her hand slips away from your shoulder and after exchanging good-byes, you start heading for your homeroom.

By the time lunch rolls around, you're really in no mood for all the chatter in the cafeteria, but when you walk in to get your lunch, you see Akira sitting at the table from yesterday, most likely waiting for you to join him. You wait on your food and instead walk over to greet him.

"Hey... do you think it would be all right if we ate in the courtyard today?" you ask.

He doesn't give you any kind of questioning look and shrugs his shoulders. "If you want to... but are you sure? It's looking a little cloudy out there, it rained yesterday around this time," he replies.

You nod anyway, knowing if it starts raining you both can just run inside.

After you both grab something to eat, you sit down at your normal bench, lunch rested in your lap as you both begin to eat.

You look over at Akira, about to ask about his day when you remember he's not really a fan of small talk, so you close your lips, trying to think of something meaningful to say. But it seemed along with reversing that action, you'd forgotten to look away as well and catch his right eye within your vacant stare.

"Something wrong?" he asks with his sandwich held close to his lips.

You look away even if it's long overdue, and even awkward at this point. "Sorry, I was trying to figure out what to say... since you don't like small talk," you say.

He's smiling now, perhaps grateful you remembered that detail about him. "It's fine, you don't have to force yourself to talk to me," he assures you. "Sometimes it's better to stay quiet and just enjoy the company."

This statement immediately sparks wonder within you. "What kind of friends did you have at your old school?" you ask.

The ghost of a chuckle leaves him. "See, I told you it'd come," he says. "Also... I didn't really have many friends. None that I felt I could trust anyway. I felt... trapped around them."

"Trapped?"

"Like there was a part of me inside that was waiting to come out but couldn't. But... I don't feel that way when I'm with you, is that strange?" he asks.

You're flattered by this and watch his eyes drift upward a bit as he takes a bite of his sandwich.

"To me, it is," you say. "I just don't see what makes me so special."

There's no response from him for awhile. A long while and you wonder what he's so hesitant for until you look over. His gaze is empty while it's staring up, unmoving since you began talking. You wonder if he hadn't heard you or lost himself in a daydream. You try to trace his gaze."What's she doing up there?" he asks before you can even register what's at the end of his eyesight and now yours. You understand now that it's a girl standing atop the roof.

You can't make out who she is from your current standpoint but you know students aren't usually supposed to be up there. "I... I'm not s—"

Your train of thought is interrupted by students and teachers flooding into the courtyard, yelling things like "no!" and "stop!" and "don't jump!"

You're starting to piece together what's going on, but you don't want to. You want to abandon this puzzle that's otherwise so easy to solve.

Your chest feels tight as it begins to swell. You see this girl who's standing atop that building jump from it. You see it all before something obstructs your view and before you can release the scream you're supressing, something clamps itself over your mouth, muffling it.

In that exact moment she jumped, you had completed that "puzzle". The girl who once was standing up there was Shiho, the girl you knew to be Ann's best friend. You heard screams and sobs of girls and the sounds of adults yelling to call an ambulance.

The moment your eyes get uncovered, you're face to face with Akira, trying to keep your body from shaking. "Are you okay?" he asks you.

You don't have it in you to reply to him. "Th-That was..." you trail off.

The feeling of raindrops on your hair and exposed skin seems to snap you out of your haze a little and suddenly you find uncontrollable worry growing inside you like a cancer. You wonder if Ann saw or if she will be okay when she finds out what happened. You find yourself looking over Akira's head and trying to see through the crowd to see if Shiho lived that kind of fall.

"(L/n), don't look over there," the boy in front of you says and forces you to look at him as he's crouched in front of you.

Five minutes of rain soaks you until school has declared an early release because of what happened. Akira hasn't left your side since it happened and now you're both standing in the front foyer of the school, looking out at the rain pelting the pavement.

"Do you know her?" Akira asks you as you listen to the sound of the water hitting the windows.

"Not too personally... she's Ann's best friend," you say.

"I know," he replies. He grunts like he did something wrong. "Well... I saw them together so, I just figured they might be close," he quickly adds.

You sigh and keep your eyes on the window. "I don't know what to do now... I can't get a train home until after school lets out," you say.

You see him turn toward you from the corner of your eye and look down at you. "There's a train heading for Yongen-jaya soon, do you want to come back to Leblanc with me?" Suddenly you think you might know a way to solve your whole job problem. But you're not sure yet so you keep quiet.

"Sure... but I haven't got a phone to use to contact my mom. The phone bill hasn't been paid so... do you mind if I use yours?" you ask.

After receiving his approval and calling your mother (only for her to not answer and for you to have to leave a message), the two of you head for the subway. The underneath is crowded as usual and you're both starting to shift away from one another every so often because of people budging past you.

Suddenly, you feel something squeeze your hand and look down to see Akira's attached to it. Your eyes quickly follow his arm up to his face, about to ask what he's doing until you don't have to. "Don't get lost, we're almost there," he says.

Finally you're both in front of the yellow line between the tracks and where the train will soon be and by now Akira has let go of your hand. When it's time to board the train, you're crushed into the same car as Akira, wet bodies from the rain pressing into one another as it would be with any sort of strangers. You wish the city wasn't always so crowded. You don't think there's ever been a day where you weren't standing shoulder to shoulder, back to back or chest to ass with someone (considering you or they are sitting down). In this case, you're chest to stomach with Akira, trying your best to avoid making it awkward.

"Sorry... it's really crowded," you say referring to your situation.

You feel his body heave slightly as he stifles a laugh. "I see that," he answers.

You've successfully made it awkward and now he knows it too. The both of you don't speak for the rest of the ride, knowing it's probably a bad idea to try. Soon you've completed the ride and now you're on your way through the back streets of Yongen-jaya, the same streets you remembered walking through the day you found that little cafe called Leblanc (you didn't know it was called that before Akira had mentioned it).

That calming little bell jingles as he opens the door for you and you both walk inside. The restaurant is vacant, save for Sojiro who's behind the counter stirring something, and whatever it is, it smells delicious.

"Oh good, you made it back," says the man before his eyes drift over toward you. "You again, huh? Kurusu, you didn't tell me you went to school with her. Anyway, I see you forgot to bring an umbrella." A chuckle leaves the man. "You're both soaked."

In unison you both look down at yourselves and see that your clothes are practically plastered to your bodies, completely drenched. You look over at Akira and see droplets lacing his thick unruly hair like little dew drops upon blades of grass on a spring morning. He looks back at you and you both smile off the situation.

"Come sit down, you two, you can have some curry and warm up," he offers. It sounds good and you're happy to oblige but you let Akira lead the way and sit down next to him. Within moments you're both being served your own plate of curry from which you deduce that aroma was coming.

"Thanks for the food," you say quietly before starting to eat and Akira echos you. Sojiro's looking at the both of you while you eat but neither of you seems to notice, at least you don't.

"So the school called and told me about what happened, do you know anything?"

You drop your spoon. You'd nearly forgotten all about it and Akira's eyes snap up toward Sojiro. "Can we talk about it later?" he asks the man.

You snap out of your little trance when you hear him talking and quickly pick up your spoon. "No, it's fine," you say. But Sojiro knows you aren't acting right and decides to drop the subject.

"How come you didn't end up going home, young lady?" he asks and you're quick to answer so that you don't seem like you're acting down about what happened.

"Oh, the train for my route doesn't come around until I get out of school on a normal day so I've got to wait until then," you explain. You tap your fingers against the counter while your eyes rest upon the dish in front of you. "Um... Mister Sojiro... if it isn't too much to ask, do you think I could get an after school job here?" you ask.

Akira and Sojiro both look at you with shock on their face and you suddenly are feeling nervous about asking. "You sure you'd be up to it?" he asks.

You could have shaken your head. You could have made every excuse in the book and went back on this asinine idea. But you didn't. Instead you had nodded which Sojiro tossed back a smile.

"Sure, I suppose. Not like I don't already have a handful, what's one more. Besides, I doubt you're any more trouble than Kurusu is," he says.

You smile back at the man. "Thank you very much, Sojiro-san. I won't let you down," you say.

You and Akira haven't spoken with one another since this was asked and there's still two hours until your train will be ready for boarding so you've got to stay a little longer. "Sojiro... is it all right if I take (L/n) upstairs?"

Sojiro gives the boy a stern look and taps his fingers rhythmically against his arm since he's got them crossed. "You had better behave yourself then," he says.

Akira doesn't roll his eyes or say anything in defiance, only nodding as he gets up from his seat, waving you along toward the stairs. You're not really sure what to expect or what exactly he's planning on doing once you're both alone in his room and to be honest, it gives you a little flurry of butterflies in your stomach. But you feel you should trust him since no one else seems to put theirs in him.

You make it to an arid room that's a little dusty and is cluttered with boxes and books and other useless junk. In the far corner, there's a bed and on another side, there's a couch. Not much to do in such a place. Akira walks over to one of the boxes up there and opens it, rummaging through it before pulling out a loose-fitting shirt and pants then pulls out another. "I know it's not ideal... but the laundromat's right around the corner. We can take our clothes there to dry and you can wear mine until they're done," he says.

You let out a sigh. Not of annoyance or exasperation. In fact, you don't know why you sighed, all you know is that there was a smile left on your lips afterward. "You're kind, Akira. Thank you." You approach the pile of clothes and pick them up while Akira closes up the box and slides it back into place. When he's done, he stands with his own wad of clothes in his hands.

The bag he had placed on the ground begins to wiggle and you shift uncomfortably. You see it unzip, only for a pair of ears to poke out, quickly followed by the head of a cat painted with black and white fur.

"A... cat? You keep a cat in your bag?" you ask.

The cat leaps from the crowded space and begins roaming around the attic. "Ah, sorry, you weren't supposed to see that. He's Morgana," he says.

"Aren't you already being targeted enough by everyone at school? You don't want to get caught with him, right?" you ask.

Akira rubs the back of his neck and sighs. "You're probably right..." he trails off before his gaze finds its way to you and you're both reminded of what you're supposed to be doing.

A small shade of pink sneaks across his face. "Uh... we could stand back to back if you want-- o-or scratch that. I'll just wait down stairs for you to get done." He does this without question and soon you're left alone up in the attic.

You start to change your clothes, slightly uncomfortable seeing as Akira's cat hadn't taken his eyes off of you since you began changing. But it's just a cat, you decide after awhile, it doesn't really know what you're doing anyway.

You look down at yourself once you've finished. The clothes are so big on you, you might as well be swimming in them. It's moments like these when you truly realize how much bigger he is than you. The waistband of the pants he gave you are just barely clinging to your hips for dear life.

You don't spend much time doing this and hurry downstairs so that Akira can change as well (the clothes look much better on him than you) and once he's done, you both take an umbrella and head to the laundromat he spoke of.

It's not all that long before you've returned, but you're not so keen on returning to your uniform and Akira's nice enough to let you stay in his clothes until it's time to go. But now that you're both back in his little room in the attic, you're not sure what to do, and with an hour remaining until you have to leave, you don't know what time or fate has in store for you.

Soon he's sitting down on his couch, looking expectantly at you like some kind of attention-seeking animal. You shift your feet uncomfortably, warring with your mind about whether you should take his hint or not. You do anyway and ease yourself down beside him. But you're on edge. You don't want to say anything to make the situation awkward so your eyes simply trail around the room, trying to find something interesting.

"You seem on edge." His words leave a hole in you. He's always so intuitive and to the point. You can't seem to recall any sort of time-- how ever short of it you've thus far known him-- where he was ever beating around the bush.

You turn your head to him. His posture is completely lax, body slunk back into the cushions. Compared to him, you're like a fence post while he's a feather being carried along in a gentle breeze. You guess you can see how he made that analogy. "Sorry... guess I'm just still thinking about earlier," you answer. It's a lie though, you know you're not good at this whole friendship thing and it's got you completely unnerved.

"Okay, why don't we do something to get your mind off it then?" He sits up after that and suddenly his face is inches from yours. You feel your chest swell while you're locked tightly in his fixed look, but his glasses make him seem distant from you, or maybe you distant from him, you're not sure. What did he mean by that question? Your face is getting hot without warning.

But he's gone within moments, he's stood up from the couch and started stretching. You stare at some of the unreadable books across the room to avoid watching as his shirt slides up, sharing with you a small bit of his unblemished skin which rests beneath it. "What helps you get your mind off of things normally?" he asks which brings your attention back to him, just in time for his arms to swing back to his sides.

"Sleep," you answer quickly.

That's usually what you do after school, save for the few days you actually remember that you have important homework to be doing.

He laughs a little at your answer. "Anything else besides that?"

You try to rack your mind to think of anything else but it's a little hard to. "Listening to music sometimes helps, I guess," you say.

Akira nods and heads over to the shelf across the room before pulling out a dusty record player. After moving some things around, he plugs it into the wall. "I'm not really sure what you like but I figure anything's better than nothing at this point," he says as he starts searching for some vinyl records to put into it.

At last he finds one and places the needle over the edge of it. He turns the volume crank and a fuzzy sound enters your ears before the music starts to play. "Elvis? Really?" you ask.

He can't read if you're intrigued or disappointed so he stands and looks at you. "Like I said, I wasn't really sure if you would like it or not," he says, and for the first time, you see him looking sheepish about something.

But you shake his head and smile. "No way, I love American music," you assure him. This immediately lifts his spirits and he strides over to you.

"Well, if that's the case..." he trails off and holds out a hand to you. "May I have this dance, Ms. (L/n)." He says this in his best Elvis voice with some kind of suave grin on his lips and you almost want to reach out and smack him for looking like such an idiot.

To be honest, you didn't think the two of you were close enough of friends to be doing something like this. In fact, it seemed really stupid in your head, but you had to admit, the offer was enticing, even if just a little.

You sigh and place your hand in his before his fingers gently wrap around it and pull you to your feet but his grip on you doesn't end, only pulls you closer so that your bodies are touching akin to when you were in the subway, but this time it's intentional and it makes you wonder what's running through his head. "Thank you... thank you very much," he says in yet another mock Presley tone. You're still supressing the urge to throw him out the attic window. But your want to cringe slowly fades out of existence as the two of you begin to lace the room with your feet, tracing patterns you couldn't repeat if asked.

The whole time your eyes stray from his, you can't peg the reason, but looking at him this close feels intimidating to you and you know he can read it. But you don't care, you're allowed to feel vulnerable if you want. You just don't want to be vulnerable.

But you are. You have no idea how to dance and you're sure Akira's been leading the way this whole time. You could never have expected a highschooler of his age to know such sophisticated dances and you can't even bring yourself to look him in the eyes.

'He's your friend, why can't you?' you find yourself asking in your head. You start to rack your brain for a reason to explain the pounding in your chest. You can smell the scent of his cologne infiltrating your nose and your sense of touch is so in tune that you're aware of every area the two of you are touching, his hand in yours while the other rests on your waist and your chests brushing one another every so often.

You find yourself watching your feet, being careful not to bump Akira while you dance and doing this makes you begin to register the pattern. And once you do, you make the mistake of looking up at your dance partner. When you do, you realize that once again, your faces are inches from one another and the gentle features of his own show you an illegible expression. His eyes are half-lidded, eyebrows resting above them as he's looking back at you through the lenses of his glasses. If someone turned off the music, you don't think you would've been able to tell because you're so lost in his pools of icy gray, framed with the aesthetic of deep eyelashes. It's like they're hypnotizing you.

"I hope this is okay, I don't want you to feel uncomfortable..." His far off voice and kind words, rather than push you away draws you in. Still, it's a startling noise against the otherwise tranquil air, moreso because you can feel his voice as it rumbles in his chest.

You wish this would all stop but at the very same time, you want it to last forever. "I've never danced this way before," you admit to him.

You can tell he's bold, but at the very same time, he's careful not to be too invasive. You've only ever heard of people going so far to cheer up others in fairytales and it makes you wish there were more people like Akira in the world, ones with such open and kind hearts who say what they truly mean right from the start. He certainly is one of a kind.

"So... about me getting a job here..." you trail off to try and kill the mood just a little, but it fails and he hushed you.

"Sh, my favorite part," he says. "When at last my dreams come true... darling, this I know. Happiness will follow you... wherever you go...~" His voice flows well with Elvis' and you realize you'd been dancing along to his song 'Love Me Tender'. As he sings, the two of you sway your bodies about the room, stepping appropriately as the instrumental carries off into soft white noise again and you're left standing there with Akira's eyes resting within yours once more.

Your mind wills you to move and do something, anything, but your body seems frozen, paralyzed in its place. You part your lips like you're about to speak but he does that for you. "Why don't you get changed? I'll walk you to the trainstation when you're done. Your train departs soon, doesn't it?" he asks.

You wish you had been able to reside in that moment of peace for just awhile longer but alas you could not. You nod your head to answer his question and your bodies leave one another. Once you're done changing, you meet with Akira once more by the entrance to Leblanc.

"Leaving now, (L/n)?" Sojiro asks you.

"Yes, thank you for everything. When should I come in?" you ask him.

The man strokes his stuble for a moment before giving you an answer. "Monday after school, sound good?" he asks.

After nodding your head, the two of you are about to walk out the door when you're stopped again by Sojiro. "And where are you going, Kurusu?"

This time, you're there to defend him. "He's just walking me to the subway, I'll be all right," you assure him.

Sojiro looks between both of you before giving a sigh. "Just don't cause any trouble, you hear, Kurusu?" he says.

After nodding, Akira starts leading you in the direction of the subway, and once you're standing before the stairs leading underground, you stop and look at one another. "Guess this is where we part," he says. You nod in agreement but he's not done speaking. "Would you want to exchange chat IDs?" he asks.

You'd been planning on doing that anyway so you don't see harm in it, especially since starting Monday, you'll be coworkers. You pull out your phones and exchange IDs with one another and with that, you look at him again. "I had fun today, thank you..." you say. It really had helped to get your mind off things.

"It was nothing, you looked like you needed something to take the edge off... well anyway, don't want to miss your train, right? I'll see you around, (L/n)," he says.

You nod your head with a small smile. "You can call me (F/n). See you, Akira."

With that, you part with him and disappear into the crowded subway to await your "chariot", leaving Akira standing there with a dumb grin on his face. He's just happy he gained your trust.


	5. Relief

You haven't heard from Akira since Friday and you wouldn't ever dream of messaging him first. You can't be sure if he's busy or would even want to talk to you. It's not like you haven't tried though, you spent an hour the next day trying to figure a way to message him without seeming desperate, that was your main concern above all else. You almost wished your phone plan covered that school messaging app so you'd have an excuse not to text him if he ended up asking.

By the time Saturday came around, it seemed again that your weekend would shape up to being completely counter-productive. You haven't even started any school work yet.

But you're greeted by your mother around the afternoon with some rather good news while you're eating lunch.

"I paid the phone bill by the way, so you don't have to use your friend's phone to contact me," she said.

"Thank you, mom," you reply as you're just getting finished with your food. That's when your phone goes off and you roll your lips, hoping for one that it's Akira texting you and for two that your mother's finished speaking so you can answer.

"I'll be going out tonight so if you want to go out with Ann or something I'll leave some money for you," she says and you simply nod your head, forgetting to thank her. "You can answer it." She seems to have noticed your unrest and you pick up your phone almost immediately after being given the okay.

You find out that it's not Akira and rather, it's Ann. Your heart jumps because you forgot to ask if she was all right the day before, you'd been too wrapped up with that new exchange student.

Ann: You got a minute?

You raise your thumbs to the keyboard and begin typing your response.

You: Yeah, sorry for not texting yesterday, I was really shaken up... is it about her?

Ann: Yeah...

Ann: I don't know why or how but...

Ann: I feel like Kamoshida had something to do with it. You remember what I told you, right?

You: Of course. What do you think happened?

Ann: I can't say for sure... All I know is that my best friend is in a coma now and I have this terrible gut feeling that it's his fault

You: What do you want to do about it?

Ann: That's the thing, I don't know what to do. Feels like I'm stuck since everyone's so timid around him

Ann: What do you think I should do?

You hear your phone go off twice, but it isn't from your chat with Ann and you back out for a moment to see who it is. You can only see the first few words of what you assume to be Akira's second message since there are no other messages in your inbox. You know you shouldn't put off Ann but it couldn't hurt to just respond really quickly, could it?

Akira: Hey

Akira: I heard there's an arcade in Akihabara, would you want to go with me there tonight?

You raise your eyebrow. You've heard of the place before but you never imagined you'd ever go there. You liked games but never found the time to pick up one of the longer ones you usually found interest in.

You: What's the occasion?

Your phone goes off again.

Ann: Hello?

You: Sorry, someone else texted me, I was just replying quick.

You look at her previous message since you've already forgotten what she said.

You: Anyway, I'm not sure. Seems like he's really corrupt and if he has everyone wrapped around his finger, there probably isn't much you can do.

Ann: Was it that Kurusu?

You: What makes you assume that, it could be my mom

Ann: You saying that just means that it was, you don't talk to anyone else, (F/n)

Akira: I didn't know there had to be an occasion to hang out with you

Akira: Should I buy you dinner first or something?

Akira was pinging you in his chat so you backed out to look at it.

You: That was a joke, right?

Akira: Did you want it to be a joke?

He replies too fast, you jump back to your talk with Ann.

You: I guess so.

Ann: He's a stalker. He followed me to the train station the other day

You: You sure he wasn't just trying to get to his own train?

She doesn't reply to you for a moment so you see it as the best time to reply to Akira, only to see her message you as soon as you leave the chat. But you'll look when you're done.

You: Are you going to make me answer that?

Akira: I just wanted to have some fun before school starts up again, I wasn't prepared for an interrogation.

You: Sorry.

Akira: Now that was a joke. Are you coming or not?

You: What time?

Akira: Is 19:30 okay with you?

You: Sounds good to me.

Akira: Then I'll see you then.

Quickly you resume your chat with Ann, lest she get even more suspicious of you.

Ann: He was specifically looking for me, remember how I said he asked me about Kamoshida? You didn't tell him, did you?

You feel your stomach sink when you read this and all at once you feel like you're about to crash and burn. Your life is probably over now so you should just put down your phone and end it. You're not too great at lying when it comes to people you care about.

You: No, I promise you I didn't say anything. Maybe he noticed Shiho acting weird? I don't know, Ann.

Ann: Never mind then I guess... just try to be careful around him. I don't want you to get hurt, okay?

You know you have nothing to worry about when it comes to Akira, that's something you can almost completely be certain of, but just to give Ann some peace of mind (and also partially because you're sick of her talking badly about him), you decide not to back him up and just agree.

You: I know, thank you for your concern.

Ann: So, you want to do something tonight? I think I really need to get my mind off this whole Shiho thing... It's been killing me.

"Shit," you mutter out loud and your mom snaps her head over toward you.

"Language, (F/n)," she scolds you.

"Sorry," you murmur.

You: I'm really sorry Ann, I have a lot of work to do this weekend.

You feel terrible about choosing Akira over the friend who's stuck with you through thick and thin and now you can't even be there for her. You're starting to wonder if Akira is even capable of stopping Kamoshida's wrongdoings and if you just outed Ann's secret for nothing. Maybe he really is some kind of stalker. You sink your head a little. With your luck, that's likely spot on.

You're so indulged in your thoughts that you don't notice Ann's response slide up your screen and you don't even read it until you sort them out.

You know that can't be true, he seems so sincere and honest. Even if he is mysterious, he's just misunderstood, you conclude.

Ann: Oh, right. Sorry...

You feel even more awful when you read her somber response.

You: Maybe tomorrow before it gets too late?

Ann: I've got a modeling gig tomorrow, it wouldn't work out

Sighing, you place your phone down. You could have invited her along if she wasn't so suspicious about Akira and perhaps if you'd felt this bad a tad sooner, you would have invited her along anyway instead of making the school work excuse.

You: Oh that's right, I forgot you did modeling. Anyway, sorry again, just message me if you need anything.

Ann: Okay, thank you

There's no further conversation after that and you're left to think about what you've filled your nightly plans with. You even consider blowing off Akira to comfort Ann but you'd feel bad either way so you might as well just stick to the story.

You know it's going to be one Hell of a night for you. You hadn't had very many problems with anxiety that day but now things were starting to weigh on you, so you decide to take a pill before things get hectic.

Your day passes you by at an agonizingly slow pace with which you fill with nothing even remotely productive even though you have all the means of doing so. This is how things normally are for you and you're not sure how you haven't flunked all your classes yet. But your current routine seems to be working so you don't intend to change it since it's comfortable the way it is.

Finally it's about thirty minutes until you need to meet Akira at the arcade and you've arrived at the train station to catch your ride, money in your back pocket.

It's much more crowded around this time since people are just getting out of work at this hour. Fortunately enough, you happen to be one of the first on the next train to pull up so you're able to grab hold of a pole before they're all taken. You don't want to sit since you don't particularly feel like getting a face full of ass.

Twenty minutes of nothing but wheels roaring against tracks passes you by until you arrive in Akihabara and begin walking to find a kiosk to look for directions. You see it's a relatively short walk to your destination and begin following the map after leaving it, checking your phone as you do to make sure you're on time. Much to your relief, it looks like you'll be early.

The outside seems a lot more favorable than the crowded inside upon arriving so you decide you'll just wait for him out there, standing by one of the doors and ignoring the nameless faces that pass you by.

Nothing lingering in the uneventful dusk seems to catch your eye and all the voices of people walking around you fade into a void of murmurs that you're too uninterested to try and comprehend. You're not sure how much time has passed by now and somehow it doesn't occur to you to check your phone but still, there's no sight of Akira and you're beginning to think the worst.

Maybe he was mugged or beaten up, or worse yet, perhaps he simply didn't want to come after all (why do you always think such silly things?). You tap against the stone wall and heave a sigh from deep within your chest. This was probably you working up the courage to check the time, knowing it was likely that a lot had passed since you first got there.

And you were right, a whole twenty-five minutes had passed since you arrived yet you can't bring yourself to message him and ask what's taking so long. But then you don't have to. Your phone pings and you click the notification banner that slid down the top of your screen.

Akira: Hey, I'll be there in just a few minutes, things got held up really bad at the train station. The one before mine sped down the rails and crashed into another train. I'm sorry it took so long

You feel like you could burst into tears of happiness. You're really glad he had the courtesy of first messaging you and secondly that he still decided to come even after all of that. In honesty, you can't be sure you'd have done the same thing, it just wasn't worth the hassle to you. You felt like a horrible person for admitting that to yourself, but it made you want to be a better friend.

You: Whoa, I hope everyone's okay. Thank you for still choosing to come though, I do appreciate it.

Akira: Of course. I gave you my word didn't I? What'd you think I'd leave you standing out there all by yourself?

You: How did you know I was outside?

Akira: Lucky guess.

Akira: Or maybe you're nearby, somewhere particularly in my eyesight.

You look around yourself from your phone, getting paranoid that he's probably watching you from somewhere that you deduce, after taking a thorough look around, that you cannot see.

You: Stalker. Where are you?

Akira: Rude. I'm on the other side of the stone pillar. Surprised you didn't even notice me walk up.

Again, you lift your gaze from your phone and slide it into your pocket. The pillar connecting the ground to the awning of the arcade above you is thick enough to hide a body about Akira's size so you peek your head around it, only to find him there. It was strange, you almost weren't expecting him to be there so your body started a bit when you saw him. His grey eyes were gazing down at you, a smirk playing on his lips as if he knew you would do that.

"Oh look, you found me," he says and you huff a little. He chuckles, noticing you're irritated by his brashness. "Come on, let's go in, it's chilly out here," he says.

You nod your head and he rolls his body around the pillar, yanking the door open for you to walk in which you do and he follows you. The smell of heating pizza and sweaty children and teens rapes your nostrils, it's also a lot more noisy than you thought it'd be. The air is electric with the ceaseless chatter of people while the rest is all just cluttered conversation that has absolutely no relevance to you so it drowns into some kind of white noise, only it's loud and in your face where you can pick out random conversation if you wanted to.

"So, why were you waiting outside anyway?" he asks as you both begin walking to get some play tokens. "It's much warmer in here." That, you know, is only because of the air stirred up by talking people and the heat that's probably way too stuffy and you'll probably leave with a headache because of it. But that's all part of the arcade experience, right?

"Crowded places like these give me anxiety," you admit.

Inserting some yen into the machine, Akira glances at you. "Why didn't you say so? We could've gone somewhere more lowkey," he says.

"Oh, no way. I'll be all right. This is gonna be fun," you reply.

Next thing you know, a plastic cup is being placed into your hands and it's heavy. You look downward quickly and find that this cup is filled with coins. It seemed that without noticing, Akira had paid for all of those coins. At first you thought maybe they were his and that he just wanted you to hold them for him, that was of course until he turned with his own cup in hand. "Ready?" he asks.

"W-Wait! You realize I had my own money, right? Please take these back, I can get my own," you say and shove your arms back toward him.

You feel a warm presence envelop your hands and look down once more to see Akira holding onto them with his own. He's pushed the cup back to you and his lips wear a smile. "Keep it, it's my treat, don't worry about it," he says.

Sighing, you allow the cup to stay in your possession and, noticing this, he lets go of your hands. With that, you both begin your journey through the arcade.

You start with the claw machines and went along to a few racing and shooting games before at last ending up at the game Akira had been trying to drag you along to since you both began playing which had at last been vacant of people. There you stood with a considerable sized Shiba Inu stuffed animal that Akira had won for you in your arms right in front of that game.

"No one's on it and we have enough coins left to play." He was basically begging you.

"Akira..." you groan a little. "I'm really not good at these kinds of games, I'll just watch and cheer you on," you offer but you can tell by the look in his eyes behind those wide-framed glasses that he's not having it.

"It won't be fun if you don't play," he says.

You sigh but you've both been there for hours and you'll probably head home after this so you figure why not? So you set down all your prizes and little candies and step up.

What is it you step onto? The DDR dance floor. It's big and high tech, nothing like what any old arcade would have. The screen and dance floor are huge so you know when you both start, it'll attract a crowd like you'd seen every other time anyone played since your visit to the Akihabara arcade.

Akira's excited and after you both finish inserting your coins, he's already choosing his difficulty which you notice he puts on hard with the highest being expert. You decide to set your own difficulty to hard even knowing you're probably about to fail miserably.

You're already noticing a crowd of people beginning to form around you both and you shudder uncomfortably. Now the song selection screen has come up and the song isn't being chosen.

"Does it bother you?" Akira asks quietly even over the murmurs of surrounding people. It seems he's noticed your unease.

You pretend not to realize he was talking and just start flipping through the songs. None of them were familiar however since you had never played the game so, under the pressure of all those watching eyes and Akira anticipating this game with you, you chose a random song, not even waiting to see first if it sounded good to you.

Akira looked at you as the song began to load up, shocked that you hadn't responded to him but he supposed it really wasn't the time anymore to be talking about it. He had a game to win.

Halfway into the song (which was very intense because of the difficulty), your feet were both racing across the dance floor, trying to scrounge up any bit of points to put you in the lead, sweat beading up on your foreheads. You never realized that this game didn't require much dancing skill at all and even though you had never played it before, you were tied in competition with Akira with a crowd of onlookers cheering behind you.

It was one of the most exhilarating feelings you'd ever experienced in your life, much so that you had forgotten about the crowd behind you and were more focused on your feet racing against the dance floor. "I never anticipated you'd be this good, you sure you haven't played before?" he asks.

"Quit trying to distract me, Akira," you say, eyes focused on every step command that's flying across the screen. You're both failing a lot but it's not that bad because you're quite sure that by the look of the points racking up quickly on either side that you're winning.

You don't notice it since you're trying to focus, but Akira is looking at you while trying to keep up with the dance. But then you feel a nudge against your side and you find yourself struggling to find your balance. You feel like you've just been given a huge injustice but all you can find is a huge grin painted on Akira's mouth. He's no longer looking at you and rather paying attention to his dance.

You lose because of the blunder in the end and by that time, you're both out of coins to use on anything fun so you decide to both call it a night. He uses the bathroom so you end up waiting for him outside to emerge. It's raining so you're standing underneath the awning. It's been raining a lot lately, you ponder.

A few people leave while you're waiting but at last the door opens again and you find that it's Akira who had done it. "Thank you for everything tonight, I had a lot of fun," you say when you notice him messing with his hair.

Akira nods his head and slips his hands into his pockets. "Me too," he answers.

You can sense he's trying to smile but won't allow himself to do it so you slug him in the arm, knowing just why he was hesitant. "I definitely would have won that game if you hadn't messed me up," you complain and finally he gives in, bursting into laughter.

"You mean like when I did this?," Akira asks, chewing off the last bit of a snicker. He catches you off guard even though he'd given away what his next move would be. He leaned over and nudged you once more like before and it caused you to lose your balance because of all the items in your arms.

Akira gasps, realizing his mistake and quickly rescues you from your inevitable plummet, grabbing onto your hand and pulling you toward himself. "Didn't mean to do that..." he says and steadies you. "However... maybe if you hadn't been so distracted by me, you wouldn't have allowed yourself to be caught by surprise."

Your eyebrows raise in shock. "What's that supposed to mean?" you ask defensively.

His eyes linger on you for a small while longer before shaking his head. "Nothing, but it looks like we'll be walking in the rain again so we'd better hurry before it gets heavier," he replies, leaving you wondering what was going through his mind when he said that.

Without an answer, you begin leading the way back toward the train station, rain gently sprinkling on both of you as you walk along. "Earlier... you never answered when I asked if that crowd bothered you," he says.

You keep walking, your eyes fixed ahead as you ponder your answer. In reality, you just didn't want him to keep looking down on you like you were some pathetic damsel in distress. You could manage yourself just fine and he needed to know that. "I must not have heard you," you answer, clearly lying.

You hear a sigh come from him, his breath visible in the cooler air. "Sorry I'm so pushy," he says to you. "I just want to be friends... no strings attached, you know? There's a lot of value in friendship to me and so I care about you." He turns his head to look at you as you both approach the subway. "You don't have to answer my question, it's all right," he assures you.

You're both standing now where you must split since you both have to get onto a different train. An urge hits you while you're standing there with all those goodies clutched in your arms. You place them down and lean forward, putting your arms around Akira. You can feel his body tense up when this happens; he hadn't been expecting a hug from you. "Thank you so much, Akira," you say to him. That's when the hug gets returned to you and his embrace feels like you've just received something that had been missing for so long.

A hidden smile meets your lips but you don't show it after you pull away. "You're welcome," he replies.

Gathering your things, the two of you exchange goodbyes and before you know it, you're on your way home.

While on the streets of your neighborhood, you can hear the soft murmur of crickets making their beautiful songs in the night. You'd spent awhile at the arcade, a little over 2 hours so it was considerably late by the time you set foot into your home.

You were almost worried when you didn't at first see your mother at home but you quickly remembered that she told you earlier that she would be going out. You start heading to your room, already reminiscing on the fantastic time you had with Akira that night.

The thought of him always makes you smile and you're sure now that this is shaping up to be of the most meaningful friendships you've ever had. This person genuinely cared for you without being forced to and that made you really happy.

You were busy setting up your new little knickknacks and souvenirs when suddenly your phone rang.

'That's strange... I wonder if Akira's lost something...' you think to yourself. But your thoughts are immediately proven wrong when you look at your phone. The number displayed on the screen is completely foreign to you.

Your thumb hovers over the red button to hang up, thinking it could be some telemarketer or spam company. But you decide to answer it anyway.

You're greeted by something horrifying on the other line when you place the phone to your ear.

"Hello, this is nurse Hanabi calling from Ikebukuro hospital, is this (L/n) (F/n)?" the woman on the other line asks you.

You freeze and feel your heart sink into your chest, dread filling you as all the worst things come to mind. Your hand subconsciously presses closer to your face. "Yes, this is her..." you trail off, your voice urging the woman to continue.

"Your mother is here," she says. "She's overdosed on Heroin."


	6. Downfall

Akira blows out a soft breath as he walks into Leblanc. Sojiro has already gone off for the night to his home where Akira had first attempted to meet the man but wound up finding him at this cafe.

It seems he's forgotten to change the sign so Akira takes the courtesy of doing so himself. When he walks in, he locks up for the night and heads up to his attic bedroom to get changed where Morgana was patiently awaiting his return, his paws tucked under himself as he lay in the window sill. "So, how was your date, Joker?" the cat meows at him.

Akira does nothing about the cat's comment toward him and just finishes changing his clothes. "It was good," he responds.

"Aha, so you admit it was a date?" Morgana yowls, springing upright.

"I said nothing about that, you did." Akira reaches up toward the ceiling, stretching his body as he drags it toward his bed, crawling into it and pulling the covers over himself.

"But you didn't deny it," Morgana points out.

"I am now."

Sighing, Morgana leaps onto the bed and curls up by Akira's feet. "Just get some sleep, lover boy. We've got a job to do tomorrow," says the cat.

Akira sets his glasses aside and looks up to the moon outside. "Love? I think you've got your wires crossed, Morgana," replies the raven haired boy as he shuts his eyes.

"Yeah, we'll see."

(Time Skip)

Your Sunday was spent at the hospital, waiting for your mother to break through to consciousness again. There were doctors who came in to try and get information from you, but the truth was that you had nothing to give them. You never had a shred of belief in your mind that your mother was into doing drugs.

It made you fearful for your future and you had every reason under the sun to be. The police were sure to be involved shortly after she awoke and you didn't want to be around for that. You had to be at school on Monday regardless of the situation and you'd be using your money left over from your hang out with Akira.

Akira... you didn't know if you wanted to see him yet because you knew the minute he saw that somber expression on your face, he'd begin using his metaphysical claws to pick apart every piece of it.

You avoid the courtyard that morning because you know what's to come if you don't. You head to your first class instead. There's no way you're ready to talk about all the horrifying things that are about to be spilled onto you. You took your medicine before you left for school, but it pales in comparison to everything that's happening.

A dreadful feeling envelops you for the whole day. You know you're purposely avoiding him and you even receive a text from him around lunch time asking where you are. Your chest feels like it might explode for the entire day and you fight back the urge to cry every minute that passes you by. Everything just seems to hurt so bad.

All these reasons were exactly why you weren't in any mood for the assembly which was called later that day. Students mumbled and murmured amongst one another, giving you a headache. Finally someone burst through the doors of the gymnasium where you all met, silencing the students. Through all the heads towering over you, you could just begin to see Kamoshida.

You gave a shaky sigh, you didn't even want to begin to start thinking of that situation. But then he starts to speak.

"Mr. Kamoshida?" the principal speaking at the podium asks. He wasn't suppsed to be there.

"I have repeatedly done things that were unbecoming of a teacher." The gymnasium was so quiet that one might hear a pin drop. Was he confessing? "Verbally abusing students... physically abusing my team... and sexually abusing female students." Murmurs started to leave the students and gasps from some of the others, even you can't help but to gasp. You knew about all of this, but you never would have imagined he would confess to it all. Strange things were happening, was this even real?

"I'm the reason Shiho Suzui tried to kill herself. I am an arrogant, shallow, and shameful person. No, I'm worse than that!" After shouting, you could no longer see Kamoshida. It seemed he was now on his knees. "I'll apologize by killing myself!"

"Mr. Kamoshida, calm down!" shouts the principal as two men come up beside him.

"No! Don't run from this!" a familiar voice yells. You look toward its origin and just barely see Ann. "You've got no right to!" she growls at him.

Kamoshida stares at her for a long moment. "You're right... you're absolutely right," he says finally. "I should atone for my crimes under the law. I'll turn myself in and confess. Someone call the police!"

This was among the most bizarre of situations you'd ever found yourself in and within moments you hear conversation erupting between the students, something about Phantom Theives and a calling card not only that, but your principal announces the assembly has finished and for you all to clear out from the gym.

You can hardly believe any of this, which is why when you begin heading back to your class, you start to ponder if Akira had anything to do with it. If he had the ability to make a grown man confess to such horrible crimes and accept punishment, just what else was he capable of?

By the end of the school day, something hits you hard like a brick to the head; your meeting with Akira is inevitable. You agreed to meet with Sojiro for your first day on the job on Monday and now it was time. You were hoping perhaps Sojiro would just keep you busy enough where you wouldn't have to talk to him at all.

You dread every second of your trek to the train station which then takes you to Yongen-jaya. You take the short walk along the side streets until at last you're standing in front of that cafè which has itself wedged between two larger buildings.

Your feet are frozen there for awhile and you're just standing there, trying to will them to move but you can't. Long story short, it takes a lot of courage to actually get you to set foot into your new job.

The bell hanging atop the door rings as you enter, bringing the attention of both Sojiro and Akira toward you. You'd nearly forgotten that the boy worked there as well. "Ah, (L/n), you're here. Kurusu was telling me he didn't see you at school so I assumed you weren't coming," Sojiro told you.

You avoided eye contact with the younger of the two males like it might give you some exotic disease if you didn't and just keep your gaze fixed on Sojiro. "Right, well, I'm here now. What would you like me to do first?" you ask.

"First off, come on over. I'll get you an apron and then we can get started on some basics like where stuff is, how to work the register, things like that," Sojiro explains to you.

You let your feet carry you toward them, your heart racing as you get closer to Akira.

Sojiro spends the next couple of hours showing you how to wash dishes, the basics of the register and how to make coffee, you even serve your first customer which happens to be an elderly woman who understands when you fumble with her cash and the brew she ordered. But after she's gone, Sojiro allows you off duty which you absolutely dread because you still have some time until the next train home.

You order yourself some hot chocolate after removing your apron and choose a seat away from the front counter. Akira's busy cleaning off dishes and other such boring things while you drink and Sojiro's there to keep him in his place and for that, you're extremely grateful.

But of course good things such as those can't last forever. Eventually, Sojiro ventures to the back room and leaves the two of you in the front alone. You keep your eyes away from him, though from the corner of them, you can see him looking at you. Then you hear his footsteps coming toward you until at last he plops his body on the booth across from you, sitting almost directly in your line of sight.

"Is everything all right?" he asks you. "I know you were at school today so... what's wrong?" he asks.

That was all you really needed to hear for your chest to swell with anguish and your eyes to sting with the tears that knocked upon them. You bite down on your lower lip and attempt to take a sip of your hot chocolate but your hand is shaking. It's at this point that you know there's no use hiding it anymore because your body language screams conflict into Akira's face and you know he's reading you like a magazine.

"...I would prefer if we talked somewhere more private..." you admit.

Those gray eyes stay on you for a moment before his body lifts from the booth. "I'll ask Sojiro. Meet me upstairs," he says and begins walking to the entrance of the back room.

By the time he's disappeared through the door, you've begun your walk up the stairs where you find Morgana laying in the window sill, looking at something outside. But his ears tilt toward you when he hears you walking toward the bed and a meow leaves him.

He lifts his feline body and jumps from the sill to Akira's bed and finally onto the floor where he trots toward you. His innocent demeanor brings a small smile to your lips and you can't help yourself but to greet him with a few pets. "Hello, Morgana," you say to him and receive a meow back. You wish you could understand animals sometimes. You notice something different since the last time you were there; the desk that was once cluttered was now neat and tidy. It looked like a little work bench for tinkering.

You don't like the idea of sitting down when not being invited to, so you decide to just crouch down, petting Morgana while you wait for Akira to come upstairs. For a few very brief moments, you'd forgotten what had happened over the weekend and that you were about to tell Akira everything. It was bliss for that short period of time until your heard the soft creaking of floor boards as your raven-haired friend treaded up the stairs.

"All right, I'm here," you hear his voice say from behind you. You stand up, ceasing your frivelous play with his cat and rivet your body toward him. He's hiding it, but he's concerned for you and you can't tell a single bit. "Sit down on my bed."

You nod your head and turn once more before walking over to seat yourself on the edge of his bed. Akira makes his way over and does the same untying and tossing his apron aside as he does. "So, what's going on?" he asks.

Your head is facing downward, nails digging into your knees as you try to formulate your response to him. You try to think back, wrenching your mind to tell him all that had happened and the dire situation you had found yourself in.

"...Saturday night, when I got home from the arcade with you, the hospital called and told me my mother was in the hospital. Apparently she overdosed on Heroin," you begin, not daring to lift your head toward him.

You hear a breath escape from him and feel him shift his weight toward you a little. "That sounds terrible, is she okay?" he asks.

You nod briefly. "She's all right. Unconscious the last time I saw her, but all right." Your eyes trail off to the side before closing them. "But... because of this, I'll have to go live with my father..." Your voice begins to shake as you speak and you can feel your tears beginning to come back.

"I'm assuming there's a problem with this," Akira replies.

You open your eyes and turn your head to look at him. "A huge problem," you say seriously. "When I was little, my father, he... he used to beat my mother and had a very serious alcohol problem. We moved to Tokyo because she finally escaped but he never got charged for what he did," you explained. "Which means he's still perfectly fit to take custody of me."

Akira's face turns from concern to horror within an instant. There's no way he could possibly let you return to a man so terrible as your father. "What? Why didn't your mother press charges?" he asked.

"She just didn't want any part of it anymore. Thought it'd be much easier to run and never look back..." you trailed off. "But she never got her justice... and now look where it's put her." You finally let a tear slip from your eye and almost immediately, you feel Akira's arms fall around you, the warmth of them enveloping you quickly.

"If there's anything I can do for you, please tell me." His tone sounds almost begging. "I'm so sorry you're going through this."

What could he possibly do to help you? Not only were you being faced with such a terrible predicament, but you also may be torn away from the kindest person you've ever met. But then again... there was Kamoshida.

"...Today. I'm sure you know about it... Kamoshida confessed all of his crimes in front of everyone and even agreed to atone for them by sending himself to prison. I don't know what you did... but if you could do the same thing for my father, it would help a lot," you explain.

Akira says nothing for a long and very drawn out moment, so you pull away to look at him which seems to snap him back into reality from which he'd drifted off. "It wasn't me," he says. "But if something like that were to happen to your father, you'd be an orphan, wouldn't you?" he asks.

You pause. You hadn't even thought of that so, shaking your head, you sigh. "Right... forgot about that," you say before burying your head into your hands. "I just don't know what to do, Akira... I'm so lost," you add as you begin to feel tears spilling from your eyes again. Not only that, but you're hugged once more as well.

Your sobbing was hard to listen to, at least for Akira. He could hear such strife buried deep within your cries, what more could anyone want but to see a smile on your face once again after listening to the orchestration of your sadness. "(F/n), I know it's a lot to ask right now but..." he trails off before putting a small amount of distance between you two. After that, he lifts your chin so you're looking at him. Even through all of this, you still have the mental strength left within you to feel uncomfortable with him looking at your reddened face with tear stains on your cheeks and puffy eyes. "I need you to put your worries to rest. I'm going to do everything I can to stop this, but you can't be scared, okay?"

You break away from his hold on you and shake your head. "You can't," you say. "It's such a mess. If my father goes to jail, I'll have to be fostered into God knows what kind of family, and you..." You look hopelessly into his eyes. "You shouldn't have to be the one to be burdened by my problems. Whatever life throws at me, I can get through it myself."

Akira looks at you as though you're speaking some foreign tongue and you start to wonder if he's making this look because of your face. "Why are you looking at me like that?" you ask, getting slightly offended.

"Sorry, I'm just confused..." he trails off.

"About what?" you ask.

"Why exactly it is that you think you should have to carry the burden of your problems by yourself."

His words strike something in you, something you've never felt before. He'd said it before, but you supposed you just never believed him; Akira cared about you. Akira cared about you in a way that told you he may do just about anything for you. What did that mean for you? Just who was this boy? Why was he so unlike anyone you'd ever met?

"I mean..." you trail off softly. "I just..." You were at an utter loss for words now. How did he bind your tongue like that?

Akira shook his head to keep you from answering, lips curling into a gentle smile which he offers to you. "It's okay, you don't have to answer me," he says. "My point is, you don't have to do it all by yourself. You can trust me," he assures you, placing his hands on your shoulders.

"I just don't want you to stress yourself out with things that don't have anything to do with you," you answer him.

"But you're my friend, so I think it does have to do with me," Akira replies.

"You're too nice for your own good..."

Akira's hands slide down your shoulders to your arms before retreating to his lap. "Come on, why don't we go downstairs and have some curry before you have to get home," he says and gets up from the bed.

Your gaze shifts downward. You don't want to go home because you know when you do, your house will be empty. It's not too much different from the times your mother's out late working (which you're not even sure anymore if she had actually been working all those times), but this time you know the house will likely stay empty and you may never get to see your mother again after she's cleared to leave the hospital. It's more likely she'll end up at some rehabilitation center until she's fit to be a functioning member of society and by that time, you're sure it'll be too late for her to come to your rescue. 

"(F/n)?"

Your head lifts up quickly to lock eyes with Akira who's at the top of the stairs waiting for you to follow him. You both stay still like that for a few long moments before you speak. "Sorry... can I just have a moment to myself really quick?" you ask.

The boy arches an eyebrow for a moment, but you can hardly see it. However, he sends a nod your way and turns, starting to head down the stairs.

You sigh softly, trying to let your anguish leave you but it seems to be stuck inside your chest, immovable. You grab hold of your arms, squeezing them to try and ease away some of the tension you feel but then you feel a sharp pain lance across your arm. It causes you to start and you look down to see what had caused the injury. Your bloody fingernails reveal that you were the culprit and now there was blood trickling down your arm.

"Shit," you say sharply and look down at Morgana who was watching you.

It seems even he has a knack for being judgmental in a way. You can't take his blue eyes upon you and you get up to go downstairs, making sure your uniform sleeve is covering up what you did. Subconsciously, you're holding onto it though to stop the pain.

When you reach the lower level, you see Akira down there sitting at one of the stools near the counter while a pot is cooking the curry and Sojiro is most likely getting things from the back.

You're just standing there now, waiting to see if you should sit down. But it seemed the sharp-witted boy had already noticed your presence and turned to look at you. "Feeling a little better now?" he asks.

Quietly, you nod your head in response.

"You don't have to wait to be told to sit, you know, come over here," Akira invites you. And that's when he notices a droplet of blood running down your fingertips and dribbling onto the floor. "Did something happen to your arm?" he asks.

You're left wondering where he could have gotten that preposterous idea and one look to the same side as your injured arm tells him that your next statement is completely false (not that the blood didn't give it away anyways).

You heard the legs of his stool scrape against the floor of the cafe before he got up to approach you and at that point, he's thinking the absolute worst. That desk of his he had cleared for tinkering, had you used something from there to intentionally harm yourself? "Let me see your arm," he says in an almost demanding voice. But you move it subtly away from him as if to tell him "no".

"It's nothing, really," you say to him.

"There's blood running down your hand, just let me see it," Akira replies.

You quickly bring your hand up which flings the droplet of blood that had been clinging to your finger onto the white shirt tucked away beneath Akira's blazer. Now you feel bad, gasping a little to see that much blood had come from such a minor wound. You lower your head, your eyes closed almost like you're expecting to be hit. Shamefully, you hold your arm out to him and allow him to examine it. You feel his slender fingertips pull back your sleeve and then he stills, just holding your arm gently in his grasp for a moment.

"It was an accident..." you say softly to ward off the shame pooling around you.

"But... it's so deep," he replies.

And that's when Sojiro walks in. From his perspective, all he can see is Akira with your arm within his hands, a bleeding gash across it and a drop of blood on his shirt.

"Kurusu! What did you do to her!" his surly voice booms out, causing both of you to jump out of your skin.

The elder shop owner storms out from behind the counter and shoves Akira away from you, guarding you with his body. "You already have charges on you and you're on probation! And you had the nerve to do something like this to her?! And in my cafe?!" he yells at the boy who's stumbled into a table.

"No, I didn't do anything to her," Akira argues back but Sojiro isn't listening to him. Now he's turned to you, examining your bleeding arm.

"Did he hurt you anywhere else?" he asks in a much softer tone.

From the corner of your eyes you see Akira looking at you with a pleading gaze. You know Sojiro won't listen to him; he needs you to stand up for him. 'Sojiro, you're mistaken," you explain to him. "It was my fault, I did it by accident. Akira was only looking to see if I was okay."

Still, the man doesn't seem very convinced. "Are you sure? The boy is dangerous so if he's hurting you, you can tell me right now," he says sternly to you, but you shake your head firmly.

"No, he hasn't hurt me," you tell him. "If anything, Akira's been really nice to me since we met... he's a good person," you say.

From this, Sojiro decides to drop it and heaves a sigh. "All right, as long as you're sure," he says. "Come on, I've got a first aid kit, I can patch that up for you." With that, he turns and starts leading you to said first aid kit so he can wrap your arm. He does this without even an apology to Akira for falsely accusing him.

You didn't like the things Sojiro said about Akira at all since you knew first hand that they weren't true and that he was simply misread; and the way he shoved the boy, it seemed like he was ready to use any means necessary to protect you.

You felt terrible for him. The boy had been torn away from his parents on account of some selfish man and now he was in the care of someone who hardly even cared about him at all. It was no wonder the boy did so much for you, he knew just how it felt to be neglected.

After all of that, you all wound up in the front of the store again, you and Akira sitting beside one another, eating silently while Sojiro leaned against the other side of it, watching you both eat.

It was then that you received a notification on your phone and take it out of your pocket, placing it onto the counter so you can look at it. You were hoping perhaps it was your mother contacting you, but instead you find an IM from Akira. You cock an eyebrow at the strange occurrence then look between he and Sojiro. You deduce it must've been something he didn't want Sojiro to hear.

Akira: Are you sure you'll be all right at home by yourself tonight?

His concern for you seems to never end, but you feel like perhaps it might be time you returned the favor. But you just aren't sure how. You're like an open book to him and yet he is cloaked in an enigma to you.

You set down your spoon and lift your fingers to the keyboard to respond.

You: I'll be okay. Did Sojiro hurt you? I'm sorry for causing you trouble

Akira: I'm fine, don't worry about it. In his defense, it did look kind of bad on my part... 

Akira: What you're going through is serious, so don't try to convince yourself that it isn't.

Akira: I don't want you to be alone if you think you might hurt yourself again...

You turn your head in his direction, eyes gazing over him. It seems he's unaware of it too, patiently awaiting your response which gives you the chance to appreciate his appearance. You would be stupid if you told yourself the boy wasn't attractive. Your eyes followed his sharp jawline which pointed downward before flicking up toward his eyes which, from your angle, you could get a clear look at since they weren't hidden behind those glasses but were of course still hooded by his curtain of eyelashes.

Thankfully, you catch yourself staring before he does and turn back to your phone so you can respond. Your looking at him had made you forget what you were thinking about, but you're almost completely sure it had to do with how compassionate he was.

You: Even if that were the case, there's nothing I could do about it

Akira: Not unless you wanted to stay the night.

This catches you completely off guard. There are so many issues with that that you're not even sure where to start.

You: What?? But we have school tomorrow and I don't have a uniform here. Not only that, but you know Sojiro would never allow it

Akira: But you would want to?

You: Well, I didn't say that...

Akira: So you wouldn't want to?

You: Are you trying trick me into staying here tonight?

Akira: I'm just concerned is all.

You take a moment to think about this. A sleepover with Akira would probably result in something disastrous happening at the end of it all, but you have to admit, the company would probably be nice to have.

You: I'll stay, but we'll have to wake up early tomorrow so I can go home and get my things before school. I just don't know how you're going to convince Sojiro to let me stay.

Akira: Easy, I won't have to.

You: What?

Akira: You can pretend to leave right before his shift ends and then when he leaves, I'll let you back inside, and since we're waking up early to leave, he'd never even know.

You: I feel like you had this planned out.

Akira: No, it was easy to come up with.

"Hey, you two. Get off your phones and finish eating before it gets cold." Sojiro's voice causes you both to jump from shock and immediately you pocket your phones and finish up with your dinner.

After that, things pan out exactly as Akira had planned. You left and hid in an alleyway about ten minutes before Sojiro was to leave for the night then received a text from Akira letting you know you were good to go back inside which he took the courtesy of unlocking the door for you.

It was getting late anyway so the two of you decided to just settle in for the night. Akira had made you a little set-up on the couch so you wouldn't have to share a bed with him, but in the end, you both ended up on the couch anyway, you scrolling through your phone while he flipped through the pages of some book while Morgana was perched on one of his legs.

Akira had given you a pair of comfortable clothes to borrow again since you didn't have any so just sitting there all relaxed made it easy for you to start dozing off. And when at last you did, your head slid down the back of the couch, landing right on Akira's shoulder.

There was no helping it, you were fast asleep and so, Akira decided it was probably time for himself to get to sleep. He was still exhausted from his Sunday night after all. So, after laying your head down against the pillow and covering you up, Akira wandered over to his own bed and got himself settled, noticing there that Morgana had not left the couch and was now laying on top of you.

"What, did you find a new sleeping buddy or something?" Akira whispered to the cat.

Morgana's ear flicked and he lifted his head to look at his partner in crime across the room. "Oh yeah, she's way more comfortable than you, Joker," the cat meows back quietly. "Besides, she has something you don't." With that, the cat stands up before plopping himself right on your chest.

Akira gives the cat a stern look, a frown creasing his lips. "That's low, get off now before I come over there and make you," he says.

"Heheh, come on, you know I was only messing around," Morgana replies before relocating back to your stomach.

"Be quiet, don't wake her," Akira whispers back softly and removes his glasses, setting them aside before rolling onto his side to go to sleep.

You knew nothing of the boy's conversation with his cat and that would serve to be the best night's sleep you could have hoped for.


	7. Leave It Behind

In the coming days since your sleep over with Akira, you felt yourself drifting from him. Though you had no choice but to see him at work on the days that you worked and of course at school, you stopped staying for extra time after work and kept choosing to do other things than hanging out with him.

But there was a completely good reason for it. You discovered that Child Protective Services were going to be relocating you with your father very soon, they just had to wait for paperwork and negotiations to be made. By now, it was your last day to be at Shujin until you would never see it, Akira or Ann ever again.

The thing is, you're not sure how to explain this to Akira because every time he's texted you trying to ask if everything was all right, you just kept assuring him you were fine even though you weren't. You suppose maybe you should start to hang out with him that day so you can work yourself into saying goodbye. When you reach the courtyard, you see Akira of course, but beside him you see a slouching blonde boy leaning against a vending machine and even Ann is hanging out there.

Just how much did you miss?

"Ann...? What are you doing here?" That's the first thing you say because last you knew, Ann hated the new boy. And who was this other guy?

"Oh, (F/n). I haven't seen you in awhile." What kind of greeting is that? Why was she there?

"Ah, yeah..." you trail off and look at all three people. "I didn't know you were all friends now," you say.

"Yeah, Akira and I are good now, where have you been? I thought at least once maybe I'd see you two together," Ann replies.

So she was calling him by his first name too? What dimensional portal did you step through? But your answer to her is the same as you've been giving Akira. "I've just been busy with things... but I guess now's as good a time as ever since you're both here," you say and start messing with your sleeve.

"For what?" Akira asks from the bench beside Ann.

You teeter back and forth from your heels to your toes then lift your eyes to them. "I'm leaving Shujin today... to move in with my dad."

Akira knows just what that means for you but Ann has no idea. You were sad to be leaving but Akira had done nothing to stop this from happening, and while you assured him that it had nothing to do with him and he shouldn't concern himself with it, he had still told you that everything would be all right but it wasn't.

"What? You never said you were leaving, why didn't you say something?" Ann asks you in shock while Akira stays dead silent.

You shrug your shoulders after that and start messing with a pebble by your shoe. "I guess with everything, I just forgot," you say before lifting your head again. You give one more look toward Akira, but he doesn't say anything to you. "So, I suppose I'm saying goodbye."

This catches Akira's attention and you both lock eyes for a split second before Ann gets up from the bench and walks over to hug you. "Stay in touch, okay?" she says and you nod your head.

Silence hangs in the air for a long moment while you wait for Akira to say something, anything. But he doesn't, so you say an awkward goodbye and part from them, starting to head back into the school.

That was until you heard footsteps clapping against the walkway behind you and when you turn around, you see that it's Akira who followed you. "(F/n)," he says and you stare at him, waiting for what he will say. "I just want you to know I haven't given up on you. I'm going to—"

You quickly cut him off by raising your hand. "Akira, please don't worry," you say. "I'm going to be okay so you can move on and focus more on the friends whose issues are in your control. We'll still talk and everything," you assure him.

Akira sighs, knowing you didn't understand anything at all and it would be too hard to explain it. He reaches out his arms before pulling you into him, hugging you. "I know," he says.

And that was your final chance of goodbye.

Your father picked you up from school that afternoon in an old, beat up clunker. Your things had already been transported to his house throughout the week, but even so, you had not yet seen your father. He didn't look very much different since you last remembered him, only that his beer belly was bigger now.

Your voices were hush as you took the drive back to his house. Not even music played through the stereo. You worried for your mother and for your friends you left behind. But most of all, you worry for yourself. You want to say something to your father after so long, but you're already ten minutes into your drive so you figure it would be awkward if you spoke now.

He still lived in the same beat up house you remembered your mother and you staying in and the same one your frightened eyes stayed upon as your mother carried a confused, much younger you away from it.

When you pulled in, your father finally spoke, but did so without looking at you. "Your stuff's in your old room but I haven't set it up yet. Figured I'd let you make it how you want," he says while getting out of the car.

You nod silently in response and get out as well so you can step inside. It's cleaner than you remember, but you figure it must be because CPS had to check it out before clearing you to move in. But that's what confused you. Why would your father even try to get you back? With the way he treated your mother, you assumed he was just a violent and hateful man at heart. What was he doing?

Still, you supposed it was awfully courteous of him to let you set up your own room, though you assumed it was only that way because he'd been too lazy to do it himself. You spend much of your afternoon setting it all up and by the end of it all, you're so tired that you don't even want dinner. In fact, you're not feeling the idea of even leaving your room. Ever.

When you finish, you lay down to attempt to get some sleep since you assumed your father wouldn't be talking to you at all that day. You get yourself comfortable, hugging the Shiba Inu stuffed animal that Akira had won for you close to your chest. But it was too hard to fall asleep so you wound up lying awake in silence.

But soon something exploded in order to break that silence; your cell phone ringtone. When you looked at who was calling you, you saw that it was Akira, the exact person you were thinking of. You decide whether or not to answer for a moment before picking up.

"Hello?" you greet him.

"Hi." There's a brief pause. "Did you make it to your father's safely?" he asks.

You roll yourself onto your side and face the wall. "Yeah, I did. Thank you," you respond.

"How are things? He hasn't done anything at all, has he?" His calming voice soothes your raging nerves and you feel like you could probably close your eyes and fall asleep.

"No," you say. "In fact, I don't believe I've actually said a word to him. He spoke to me once, but it was nothing really."

"Well, that's good..." Again, he pauses. "Just a question though... why didn't you say anything sooner to me about this? I guess I already knew, but I didn't know it was happening so quickly." Another pause. "And... it hurt a little bit that we didn't really do anything meaningful before you left."

Oh, why didn't you know how to do anything right? You felt a pain well up in your chest, feeling terrible that you had completely neglected him in the days before your departure. "I'm sorry, Akira. I really wanted to hang out with you but I just... I don't know... I guess I just didn't want this all to hurt as bad when I finally had to go," you answer finally

His response was fast. Maybe too fast.

"I didn't want you to go yet... I've been trying really hard to figure out how to deal with this whole thing so you wouldn't end up with your father or some random family... it just took longer than anticipated I guess," he says.

"Like I said earlier, don't worry about it," you reply.

You hear him sigh softly on the other end. "There was something I wanted to ask you actually, which is why I called," he says. "I was wondering if you wanted to do something with me again this weekend. We could go to the theater."

You look off to the side, anguish slowly enveloping you. "I would really like that but... I don't exactly have very much money left from when I was working for Sojiro. I used it on the daily commute and lunch at school. And... well, my dad hasn't hurt me yet, but I don't want to give him a reason to. I feel like asking for money might be a overstepping a little," you explain to him. This likely meant that you may never see Akira again unless you found some way to get another job.

"Don't worry about it. I can cover your commute and your movie ticket. I'll come pick you up from your house and we can go from there," he says quickly.

"What? Are you sure? I mean... where I live is a bit far from Yongen so it'll cost you a lot. Just forget it, I can't ask you to do that," you answer.

You hear his low voice chuckle from the other side of the phone. "I don't remember you asking me. I believe I offered, didn't I?" he says.

 

Now it's your turn to sigh. "Why are you doing all of this for me? Do you do these sorts of things for all of your friends?" you ask.

"Of course. My friends' happiness is important to me," he answers. "So... Sunday?"

You can't help but smile at his persuasiveness which has drawn you right in. "Yeah, I'll go with you," you answer.

"Perfect, just message me your address and I'll see you then. We can talk about a time later on," he says.

"All right, good night Akira," you reply.

"Good night."

With that, the both of you hang up and after putting aside your phone, you feel a little more at ease. Sunday you absolutely must prove your worth as a friend to Akira, he's done so much for you, so you will find a way.

Thinking about it makes you forget your stress and you end up falling asleep right then.

\--Earlier that day--

When Akira returns from talking to you, he takes his place at the bench upon which he'd previously been sitting. He looked almost destroyed.

"All right, spill it, Puppy Dog Eyes. You like that girl, don't you?" the blonde standing by the vending machine says in a teasing tone.

The raven boy sighs and looks over toward him. "First Morgana, now you too, Ryuji? Is it a crime to be friends with someone of the opposite sex?" he asks.

Ryuji chuckles at this and pushes his body away from the vending machine to walk in front of Akira. "Nah, it's just you looked all sad coming back here after that girl said she was leavin'," he says.

"I hate to admit it, but I think Ryuji's kind of right. We'll still be able to talk to her and everything, it's not all that bad," Ann assures him.

"It's not that..." Akira replies which causes Morgana to poke his head out of the boy's bag.

"He's right... should we tell 'em, Joker?" the black and white cat meows.

"I don't see why not, we'll need their help regardless," Akira responds.

"Akira wants to change the heart of (F/n)'s dad," Morgana begins. "She told him that her father used to abuse her mother, but he never got punished for his crimes. The reason she's leaving is 'cause her mom overdosed on drugs so CPS told her she's gotta go live with him now," he explains.

Ann's eyes get wide at this. Through all the years she had known you, you'd never told her about such a serious thing happening, not to mention the reason. She'd just assumed maybe you had a falling out with your mother and chose to move with him, she never expected something like this. "What? She never told me her father was abusive..." she trails off.

"Well, we gotta do somethin' about it obviously," Ryuji butts in.

"I agree," Akira says before crossing his arms. "The only problem is, if we do that, there's no telling who would foster her and we could end up putting her in an even more dangerous place than when we started. That's what I've been stuck with," he adds.

"Well, as Phantom Thieves, we can't just do nothing. (F/n)'s in trouble," Ann says which causes the others to nod their heads.

"I know, what about that Sojiro guy that took you in? You think he'd do it?" Ryuji asks.

"Hmm..." hums Morgana. "It might not be such a crazy idea. I mean, think about it, he took a delinquent like you in, didn't he? Maybe if you explained the situation to him, he'd agree to it," he says.

"It's a start, but we still don't know where exactly she'll be moving to or the name of her father... only his last name," Ann replies.

"I'll take care of all the information gathering as well as talking with Sojiro. If he gives the okay, I'll move forward with the plan and keep you guys updated," Akira says.

With that, the little meeting between the four Phantom Thieves was adjourned.

On his way home from school, Akira thought about you a lot. He didn't want you to get hurt and genuinely worried a lot for you. He hadn't stopped thinking of you after you told him what was happening and it hurt to know you were leaving out of the blue.

He walked into Leblanc after school to see Sojiro standing behind the counter, waiting for customers to walk in. It was a disappointment for him to see Akira. Usually the kid just went upstairs on days like today when he didn't have to work, but this was different. He sits down at one of the stools in front of the counter, placing his school bag down beside him.

"Eh? What do you want, kid?" Sojiro asks him.

Akira stays silent, trying to rack his brain for a way to talk to the man about this. It was a lot to ask of someone who was already doing him a big favor by agreeing to look after him.

"Something happen at school?" This snaps him out of his thoughts because now the man is almost demanding he answer.

Akira shakes his head then lifts his eyes to look at him. "I have a really big favor to ask of you..." he trails off.

"A favor? Isn't that a little bold of you to be asking me for favors? I don't know what it is, but I don't want any part of it. Just go upstairs, you're taking up space," Sojiro scolds him.

"Please just hear me out," Akira pleads with him, his fists clenching. "It's important to me," he says. This silences Sojiro for a moment which gives the raven a chance to explain himself. "I'm sure you're aware that (F/n) moved since she stopped working here..." he trails off. "Well, she was forced to leave her home because her mother overdosed on drugs, and she moved with her father who used to beat her mother," he explains.

"Yeesh, the poor girl..." Sojiro mutters. "So what're you saying you want me to do then?"

"If I can prove he's guilty of his past crimes... would you agree to foster her?" he asks. "It's just... I don't know who else to turn to and you're the only one I know I can trust not to hurt her... so please." The boy's gray eyes even begin to tear up a little bit.

"Hey, hey, no need to bring on the waterworks," Sojiro says before giving a deep sigh. "I have a lot on my plate at home as it is... I don't know if I would really be the ideal person. She needs someone who would be able to provide for her as a parent and I just don't know if I'm the guy," he says. "Besides, you don't even have a way to get this guy in a position where he would have to give up his rights, and I'm not fighting in a court case that I can't win, that's asking too much of me."

Akira laces his fingers together and presses his nose against his hands. "Please, just have some faith in me. I can work things out so you won't have to do anything, just say you'll do it," he says.

"You better not be getting yourself into any trouble doing this. I mean it, Kurusu, if you get yourself into any bad situations, it's game over for you." And out came Sojiro's stern voice again.

"I won't get myself into trouble," the boy responds.

Sojiro lets out a sigh and rubs his temples with his fingers. "All right... I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here. I'll foster her," he says.

Akira bows his head, feeling a wave of relief wash over him. "Thank you, I won't let you down." With that, he gets out of his chair and heads upstairs to break the news to his friends.

He sits down on his bed and pulls out his phone with Morgana sitting on his leg to see the conversation.

Akira: I'm surprised, but I was able to convince Sojiro.

Ryuji: For real? From what you told me the other day, even I was doubting you'd pull it off

Akira: Dumb luck maybe... but I guess this means the plan will be set into motion.

Ann: That's great and all, but how are you going to get the information we need to uncover (F/n)'s father's distorted cognition? Won't it seem weird if you just ask randomly?

Akira: I hadn't thought of it yet.

Ryuji: Why don't you ask her on a date?

Ryuji: Hahahaha

Ann: Come on, Ryuji, he already said he didn't like her that way, don't be like that

Akira: Not a bad idea though. Heh, Morgana says we must be hitting a patch of good luck since you've been thinking of all the good ideas today.

Ryuji: Tell that cat I said to put a damn sock in it

Akira chuckles a bit at this and glides his hand down Morgana's back.

Akira: I'll ask for Sunday and report back with the info we need, okay?

Ryuji: Sounds good to me, but it only counts if you kiss her!

Akira: I'm not kissing her.

Ann: Ryuji don't you have better things to be doing than harassing him?

Akira: Talk to you guys later. I'm gonna call her now.

And with that, the conversation between you and him ensued once her dialed the phone. The date was officially set for Sunday.


	8. Save Me

Three days had passed since you came to stay with your father, and in that time, you seldom left your room. Your father hadn't signed you up for your new school that was near the same school you used to go to when you were little, that's all you knew.

But you knew you couldn't hold off school for too long. Finals were fast approaching and if you didn't take them, you couldn't move onto your Junior year of high school.

When you got up for breakfast that morning, your dad was sitting at the table with a glass bottle clutched in his right hand. This gave you an uneasy feeling since it was the first time since moving in that you had witnessed him drinking.

You say nothing to him and go about your business making yourself some breakfast. Once you make yourself something small, you stop your actions before slowly turning your head toward your father.

He notices the sudden pause in your movement and turns his head, locking eyes with you. "What?" he asks.

Quickly, you avert your eyes from him and pick up your plate from the counter. "I... was wondering when I would be starting school... since finals are coming soon," you say. Still, you refuse to face your father head on. Even without looking at him, you can feel tension pooling around you drawing pressure on your back.

"Didn't I already tell you I'd get to it when I get to it?" There's an edge to his tone, one that slices you like a razor.

You lower your head a little before turning to go back to your room, making sure you walk around the other side of the table to avoid him. "Right, sorry I asked." There's a bit more of an attitude to your tone than you had intended and as soon as you hear it come out of your lips, you know it's pissed him off and you feel an entire cinder brick be dropped inside your stomach.

You hear his chair slide out and your immediate instinct is to just freeze and accept what's about to come. But you remember that you're not completely helpless and start to run away. If you hadn't frozen there for that second, you probably could have escaped and locked yourself in your room. But he latched onto your wrist and knocked the plate of food you were carrying out of your hand. "You wanna run that by me one more time?" he slurrs. You know he's drunk.

"I-I was just saying I was sorry," you answer him in a shaky voice. His grip on your arm is agonizing and it's almost hard to believe such a man has this much strength.

You feel your father's eyes drilling into you but you can't bring your own to meet them. "You remind me of your bitch of a mother." That word stabbed your heart and it felt like your blood grew heated from hearing him say it. "She never should have taken you from me. If I had it my way, I'd make it so you weren't so much of a pussy." You felt a drop of spit hit your cheek.

You just stood there, letting his words seer into your bones and that drop of spit sitting on your cheek felt like lava. You brought your other hand up and wiped away the spit before finally allowing your eyes to meet his. "If you had things your way, you'd have broken all of my bones and wasted all your money on alcohol," you spat at him, your heart racing as you stared at the fire incinerating anything innocent within your father's irises.

"What'd you say to me?!" That was when your father's hand came barreling across your face. You couldn't have predicted it even with what you said and how you knew he would react. The slap sent you straight to the ground and out of his grasp. You scream loudly and start scrambling away from him on your hands and knees, knowing you likely wouldn't get far. You even start to lift your body to its feet but that's when you felt a hand on your ankle yank you back to the floor.

"No! No!" you scream so loud your throat feels raw as tears run from your eyes.

"You don't speak to me like that! I am your father!" he yells and kicks your back with those dirty steel-toe boots he wears. This incapacitates you for a good moment, the wind being knocked out of you as you struggle for your breath. His shadow looms over you. That was all you could see since you could not lift your head. "Go to your room..." his voice rumbles lowly before walking back to the table.

He neither says nor does anything while you struggle to get to your feet and find your breath again. When you do, you limp your way to your room and stay there for the rest of the day until late night falls upon you. You'd put in your headphones to drown out the sounds of your growling stomach and just laid there in your bed, trying to keep yourself from having a panic attack.

At this point, your thirst begged to be quenched and so you stood from your bed and lumbered toward your door, your back paining you as you do. But on your way over, you capture a glimpse of your reflection and discover that your father had left a mark on your face. Not only had it welted up, but it even began to bruise in places where the force came much harder.

Your intent hadn't been to tell Akira about this but now it seemed you had no choice. You hated that he worried so much about you. Shaking your head, you made the rest of your journey to the door, but when you tried to open it, you discovered the knob would not turn. Perhaps it was a fluke in the knob's bolting? You try again. You try about 20 more times consecutively and still, the door won't open.

A feeling of dread falls over you as you realize your father has locked you in. You had almost forgotten about the lock your mother had installed on your door to keep you from getting involved when they were fighting. Instinctively, your fist starts to pound on the door. "Hey! Let me out!" you shout.

Unbeknownst to you, this had awoken your father from his drunken slumber. "You better not be breaking my damn door!" he yells back.

"Why did you lock me in here?!"

"You can come out when you learn some respect!"

You burst into tears and turn around, sliding your back down the door until you're sitting with your knees folded in front of you, your arms wrapped around them. You hold in each and every one of your sobs which you make up for in the amount of tears you spill onto your sleeves.

You can do nothing about this and it also means there's no way you can hang out with Akira. The door will eventually be unlocked, you know this, but in that moment, it feels like you'll be held prisoner there forever.

When you finish with your crying you crawl back to your bed and grab your phone. When you click on your IM between you and Akira, a pang of sadness strikes you. Your last conversation was from yesterday when you both were talking about a time to meet and what movie you would be seeing together. But now you had to let him down.

You: I'm sorry. I can't come tomorrow.

It was about 1:30 in the morning by now so you honestly doubted you'd get an answer from him right away.

Surprisingly enough though, you actually did get a response within only a few minutes.

Akira: What? Why? Did something happen?

You looked off to the side. With your current predicament, there was no way you could possibly get away with lying to him so there had to be just a little bit of truth to it.

You: My father got upset and locked me in my room and I don't think he'll be letting me out.

Akira: You think a locked door will stop me? I'll come in through your window.

You: Will you just let it go already?! I'm a lost cause! Taking me out anyway is only going to make things worse so just stop!!

Immediately you regret hitting send on that text. There's no response from him, not even an indicator that he's typing back.

You: Wait, Akira. I didn't mean to say that to you, I'm sorry.

You texted him several times after that apologizing to him but to no avail. You spent the rest of your sleepless night sulking in loneliness. The thought that you had ruined everything for yourself plaguing you like a cancer.

You lost track of time in solitude. You played your phone until the battery ran dry but you didn't bother plugging it in. There was nobody to talk to and nothing that would distract you from all of this. Music had stopped working once afternoon of the next day hit. And soon your tears carried you into the evening, the red sun flitting through your windows and painting your skin a golden color.

You looked up after hearing something hit the glass of your window. But the thought of the small noise leaves your mind shortly after and you go back to being enveloped in your thoughts, thoughts that would likely kill you soon enough.

Felt absolutely terrible for having hurt Akira the way you did.

Tap.

Why did your mother have to be so selfish? Things could all have been fine if she just didn't make such terrible choices.

Tap.

But you suppose you shouldn't say that about your mother. Throughout your life, she has done everything in her power to keep you safe and even now, you were sure she was trying to fight to get you back.

Tap.

You clenched your fists and threw your blankets off of your bed, storming over to your window as you threw it open, looking around to see where the Hell that irksome noise was coming from. Your eyes darted about your yard until they found the tree standing not ten feet from your window, and perched upon one of its branches was what you thought to be an illusion.

There on the limb closest to your window was a pale boy with unruly hair and huge glasses, wearing a small smile as he looked up at you, a few pebbles in his left hand while his right was reared back, ready to throw another.

"Geez, I was starting to think I might have to climb all the way back down to get more," he says.

You still can't believe your eyes even after he's spoken to you. "Akira? What are you doing here?" you ask him.

He shakes his head. "Just be quiet and get yourself ready to go or we'll be late to the movie," he says.

You suppose you don't really have any other choice. He's here. He came all the way here for you even after what you said to him. Just who was this boy?

You got yourself into something more fitting and did your best to comb out your hair with your fingers since your brush was in the bathroom. It came out looking like a frizzy mess but that hardly mattered to you.

You went back to the window, half-expecting for him to be gone but he was simply swinging his legs back and forth, sitting in the tree while he waited for you. "Okay, I'm ready..." you say to him which causes him to look up. He then reaches his hand out toward you.

"Come on, I'll help you," he says.

Almost without a second thought, you take his hand and carefully begin working your body out of the window and to the tree limb. To keep you from falling, he hugs his arms around your waist before slowly maneuvering the two of you to the ground. Once there, he turns and faces you.

You wince when he does because you know then that he's seen the bruise your father left on your cheek. But to your surprise, he says nothing in that regard.

"Do you like pocky?" he asks.

The mention of the sweet treat immediately makes your stomach grumble like a ravenous animal. "Yeah..." you say nervously, hoping he hadn't heard your stomach.

He then pulls out a box of those chocolate coated breadsticks and hands them to you. "We should get to the train station," he says.

You nod and as you both begin walking away from that dreadful home, you try not to make it obvious as you practically rip open the box of pocky and start shoveling them in your mouth almost by the handful. The taste on your tongue is so foregin but so rich like water after you've been wandering in a desert for days.

It's quite a walk to the station, but you fill the gap with talking along the way.

"Hasn't been the same without you at school," Akira says to you.

You turn your head to look over at him. "Yeah, I miss Shujin every day," you say.

This conversation begins when you arrive at the train station and are awaiting the train's arrival.

"Ann's been torn up about you leaving... between you and Shiho, she's had it rough," Akira says. At this point, he can no longer ignore the bruise on your cheek and places his hand gently upon it. "Is this where he hit you...?"

The question catches you off guard and you flinch away from him, which only makes him want to lean close again. "It's bruised..." he trails off with a somber look in his eyes.

"I-I know..." you reply sheepishly.

His gaze pours into yours, your heart dancing in your chest to an unknown beat. "Can you promise me something?" he asks.

"What is it?"

"After tonight, you won't shed one more tear because of your father. You'll stay strong for me until morning no matter what happens when you get home," he says.

You find his choice of words to be rather odd so you're not sure if you should be agreeing to this. Or even if you could keep that promise to him. "I..." you trail off. That's when the train rolls up and people begin pouring from its innards. This isn't a very popular part of Tokyo, but the sound of people still roars in your ears. "We should probably get on so we can get a seat," you say before parting from him and boarding the train.

You both manage to get seats beside one another before the section fills up. "Are you scared?" Akira asks you.

"Scared? Of what?" you ask.

A smile slips across his lips. "Never mind... do you want popcorn or snacks when we get there?" he asks.

"If it's not too much trouble..." you reply.

Two train rides and a short walk later delivers you to the Yongen-Jaya theater. You miss this part of town and it brings you nostalgia the more you look around. When you enter, Akira gets a souvenir bucket for the both of you to share and a drink. You don't mind sharing a straw with him. The movie the both of you had chosen was a classic rom-com which had just recently come out, so it was enough to keep the two of you laughing for awhile.

You were happy that he'd agreed to watching that sort of movie with you since you were sure most guys his age were not remotely into them. When it was over, your mouths were full of laughs and comments about the contents of the movie and all in all, you both simply had a wonderful time. You had almost completely forgotten about your trifles with your father and he hadn't once reminded you of it.

When you both left the theater, you stayed underneath the awning. It was raining once again so you were simply standing there, trying to decide when the right time was to leave. "You don't have to go back, you know... I could kidnap you," Akira says with a little chuckle which causes you to laugh with him.

"As much as I'd like that, I really can't," you say as you take out your pocky once more. You look in the box to see there's only three left so you proceed to start eating them.

"You ate all of those already?" he asks you, looking into the box to see if there are any more.

"I was hungry, sorry," you say with a laugh, forgetting the reason behind your hunger wasn't exactly funny. You hold up the last one to him. "Do you want the last one?" you ask.

"No, I got them for you. You can have it," Akria replies.

"But I had the whole box already, just take it," you say, refusing to let yourself eat it now.

Akira stays quiet for a moment, trying to figure out a way to solve this issue. You see an almost malicious grin appear across his face before he speaks again. "Why don't we share it?" he says.

"Oh, sure, I'll split it in half," you reply and hold the last pocky between your hands.

"Wait," Akira says which stops you from breaking it. "Put it in your mouth."

Confused, you slowly raise the pocky up to your lips and grasp it between your teeth. After that, Akira leans down so the two of you are eye level and his mouth latches onto the other end of the stick, the chocolate-coated end. Your face immediately gets red, knowing exactly what he's trying to do. But you can't bring yourself to pull away. With your eyes locked, Akira assumes you know what to do and takes a bite, inching himself toward you.

You feel your heart begin to flutter again as you too inch closer by taking a bite. Soon, the both of your lips are mere inches from one another and you still yourself, unable to move any closer. Your eyes are alert while his seem relaxed and calm. Suddenly, you feel something unexpected touch your cheek which is extremely gentle and soft.

From there, Akira's eyes close, his lips meeting yours at last, but they don't pull away once he's stolen the last piece of pocky from your mouth. The warmth of his tender lips remains where yours are, thumb stroking your cheek while you're paralyzed and unsure of what to do.

You feel your chest swell as he slowly leans away from you and you're not completely sure how you're supposed to look him in the eyes after that. But when your eyes do meet his, you can see that his own face is even dusted with a gentle pink.

"I win," he says, chewing the last piece with a victorious smile. "Should we head back to the train station?"

'Take that, Ryuji...' he thinks to himself.

You force yourself to answer but only end up squeezing out an "um...!"

A laugh leaves him, not expecting you to answer him so he just starts walking toward the direction of the train station. Your walk and ride home is mostly silent. You couldn't really bring yourself to say anything meaningful after what had happened. And then the moment had at last arrived where you were underneath the tree near your room.

"Before you go, there's something I need to ask you," Akira says.

A blush forming on your cheeks, you turn to him, your heart pounding in anticipation for what he might say.

"Your father's name... I need you to tell me what it is," he says.

This catches you by surprise and you look off to the side, clearing your throat quickly. "Oh, um... it's (D/n). You already know my last name so..." you trail off. "Why?" you ask.

"Well, if I told you, you'd probably just tell me to stop getting involved again," Akira says. "Come on, I'll help you back to your room." Akira allows you to go up the tree before himself in order to help with your footing, and once you reach the top, you reach over and slide open your window before climbing in then sticking your head out to speak to the boy one more time before he goes home.

"Thank you for tonight, I really appreciate everything," you tell him.

With a smile, he sends you a nod. "Of course," he replies. "Well... I'm going to head home now, okay?" With that, he begins to maneuver his way down the tree.

"Wait!" you call after him before he can get to the next branch.

Akira lifts his head to you again. "Yeah?" he asks.

You feel your chest swell again and clutch your shirt as if that would do anything to slow your fastening heart rate. "...what we did earlier..." you mumble softly before you look him in the eyes.

Akira scoots himself along the branch so that he's closer to you now. "What?" he asks. But you go quiet again, unable to complete your question. His eyes go half-lidded after a few moments of waiting for you to speak. "Did you want to do it again...?" he says lowly.

"...yes," you reply in almost a whisper.

You see him begin moving closer to you, his hand cupping your cheek as he'd done before. This time you felt a little more prepared and closed your own eyes as he did his. Just as your lips were a hair's breadth apart, a slam from inside the house cause you both to start and focus your attention inside the room.

There, burst through the door was your father and you looked like a deer in headlights.

"There you are, you no-good bitch! So you ran away with some guy, huh?!" Your dad began storming his way over to you.

"Akira, go!" you yell and quickly slam the window shut, Akira moving himself away from it just in time.

But he doesn't leave, it looks like he's trying to get back inside. Without warning, your father begins yelling things at you that you can no longer comprehend over your own screams while he hurts you and you try to escape him.

While all of this is happening, Akira has jumped from the middle of the tree and begun trying to find another way into the house. He comes to find that both the doors are locked and each window he attempts to get through are locked as well.

"Fuck! No!" he shouts as he bashes his fist against the front door.

A tear slides down his cheek ask he lets the realization wash over him that he cannot help you.

Not now at least.


	9. Don’t Come Back

"Akira..." you say softly through a call on the phone.

You lay against your bed shaking as your father has nearly beaten you to death. You're bleeding and broken, at the mercy of any who would walk to you.

"It hurts..." you say through a flood of sobbing.

"I'm coming inside." You can hear the anguish in his voice.

"Don't," you demand him. "I knew this was a bad idea from the start... Akira, just go home... and don't come back... I don't want you to get hurt either."

There's a pause on the other line after that. "Don't worry, I'm going to--"

"No," you cut him off. "You're going to do nothing but go and forget all of this even happened."

 

You never spoke a word to him since that day.

Your tired eyes peel open to the light of a new day. It had been a week since all that had happened to you; a week which had consisted of days where you tried to forget about Akira, but you couldn't no matter how hard you tried, you simply couldn't forget his other-worldy kindness toward you or his charm and most of all, the feeling of his lips touching yours.

When you were in a bad place, all you needed to do was think of your kiss with him and it all seemed to fade into nothingness. But you were seldom rewarded with a feeling of happiness. Your prescription for your medication was nearly up and you worry asking your father to fill it will only make things worse for you, so you say nothing.

On that matter, today is your last dosage remaining of your medicine. This would serve to be a problem, especially since you were starting your first day of school. Your deliverance to morning by night did not so much prepare you for it as it made you dread it.

Your night of sleep, like all others as of late, had been nothing short of absolutely horrendous. Usually you never had issues going to sleep at night but you supposed since moving to your dad's, your normally sleepy demeanor had changed. You felt more alert yet not at the same time.

But you were glad you got to go to school, because it meant a long day away from your father. Your wounds had almost completely healed and gone away, but a few bruises still lay scattered about your skin and they hurt to the touch.

It was up to you to get to school.

You think the only plus side of going to this new school had to be the fact that you no longer needed money for a morning and afternoon commute, so that was a plus. However, you would still need money to eat lunch.

But when you get to the living room, you find your father asleep and instead of asking for the money you need, you decide to just go hungry and eat when you get home.

On the bright side, this lack of eating has made you lose a few pounds so now you can fit into your pants at least, not that it mattered since now you have a new uniform.

The streets you found yourself following to get to school were a lot emptier than you were used to when you were living in Shibuya with your mother. It was a nice change of pace in that aspect at least. You didn't have to worry about a crowded subway or putting in your earbuds to drown out all the access noise.

For once, you could hear the chirp of the birds and morning cicadas. You drew in a deep breath and found that it was fresh air, not crowded with the breath of other people.

You could definitely get used to this morning walk every day. It was enough to make you forget everything. You heard the buzz of a bee wizz past you and that, you knew meant summer was fast approaching. You wonder if all that rain was clearing up finally.

Soon, you're standing in front of your new school. The layout is a lot different than Shujin and it dawns on you that you'll have to get used to its confusing structure, and because you've already chosen not to make any friends, you know you'll have to figure it out by yourself.

Sighing, you head inside to find the halls bustling with talking students. You were told to go to the principal's office on your first day so you could be shown to your first class.

You'd much rather skip the whole "formally introducing yourself to your classmates" thing. It seems a lot more stressful than you're willing to take on and would rather just walk in like you're supposed to be there. You didn't want to feel singled out.

When you arrive at the principal's office, you're actually expecting to see principal Kobayakawa sitting behind the desk, but he's not. Instead, there's a much slimmer man sitting there who's more gifted in the hair department than your last principal. He's well shaven too.

"Good morning, can I help you?" he says after lifting his head from the paperwork at his desk. He doesn't seem to recognize you and then he realizes— "oh, you must be the new transfer student," he says. "Chiharu-Sensei will be here soon."

Chiharu... you don't recall that name. "Chiharu?" you ask.

"Yes, she's your homeroom teacher. She'll be the person you go to if you have any questions," he says. "And you and I met yesterday, principal Arimoto."

You nod your head silently and wait awkwardly in the office for this teacher to enter. When she does, you take in her appearance. She seems nice. "Hello, are you (L/n) (F/n)?" she asks you.

"Yes, that's me," you say.

Your teacher bows a little to you. "Pleasure, I'm Mrs. Chiharu. If you're ready, I'll show you to homeroom and then you'll introduce yourself to your classmates," she says.

You badly want to ask her if you can simply skip the formalities, and it's especially tempting since she's so nice. But you decide to stay quiet since, knowing someone like her, she might try to ask you why, and you don't really feel like explaining.

So, you simply nod your head and allow your teacher to lead you to your homeroom. Before you walk in, she stops you outside the door and turns to you.

"I know things like these can be nerve racking sometimes. But you shouldn't worry, all you have to do is walk in and introduce yourself, okay?" she says with a smile.

Again, you nod at her, and with that, she turns to go in with you in her trail. The classroom is a little noisy and students are standing, talking with each other. "Good morning everyone, please take your seats." At her heeding, everyone quiets down and sits, but when they see you, the murmurs start again and you can feel your heart begin to race. You catch wind of a few of the words said by others, things such as "she looks weird" or "isn't that the new girl?" It makes you feel out of place instantly.

"As I'm sure you all may have heard, we have a new student joining us today," Chiharu says to the students, quieting them again.

All these silent eyes staring at you turns your cheeks red and you feel choked up. Then, the teacher standing beside you nudges you subtly. "You should introduce yourself," she whispers and you immediately tense up.

"O-Oh! My name is (L/n) (F/n)," you say. You forgot to say nice to meet you, but it's too late now.

Chiharu smiles a bit. "I would ask that you all welcome her warmly. Now, (L/n), why don't you take a seat next to Kitagawa." You notice the student she's taking about perks up from his slouching position. "Would you please raise your hand?" she asks, looking at him.

You already know who she's talking about but you let him raise his hand first anyway. He doesn't seem very amused by you but you wander over to him anyway and sit in the empty seat beside him.

You say nothing to him, even though you notice he's looking at you from the corner of your eye.

"Not even a hello?" he asks you, causing you to tense up once more. Your eyes flick over toward him before returning to the folded hands in front of you. "Are you hard at hearing...?" he asks, and it almost sounds serious. Maybe he is being serious. "Then again, you did look at me when I spoke to you," he says.

You wish you had the courage to continue ignoring him or to tell him to stop talking to you. But it pained your heart to do that. "I'm sorry..." you say quietly.

The student's low voice chuckles a little and you can see him lean forward to try and catch your gaze. "It's okay, I'm sure the new school thing is probably scary. All these new, random people, huh?" he says. Finally, you bring your eyes over to meet his. They're gray and they remind you far too much of Akira's eyes.

"Yeah..." you trail off. You figure that should be enough to give him the hint that you don't want to talk to him, but he keeps speaking.

"I'm Yusuke Kitagawa, it's nice to meet you," he says.

"Nice to meet you," you echo him.

You turn away from him again, twiddling your thumbs, trying to do anything to escape speaking to him.

"Do you want any help getting around today? This school can be confusing sometimes," Kitagawa says.

"No thank you, I can do it myself," you assure him.

It finally seems he's taken the hint and when the time comes for you to leave class, you almost regret not accepting his offer to help you get around. Almost. You're late to your first class because you had gotten lost, but you're grateful you didn't share the class with Kitagawa so you didn't have to face the fact that you probably did need his help.

Like your homeroom, it's quickly made clear to you that you're foreign here. Everyone looks at you strangely but when they see you've noticed, they avert their eyes like they never looked at you at all.

Throughout your day, you follow your schedule as well as you can and are late to almost every single class after getting lost. There's one hallway that always throws you off, it's like this place is a maze. And it's in that particular hallway that your next class lies.

The bell already rang ten minutes ago and you're supposed to be in art. You're about to just sit down and give up at that point but your press on for a little longer, glancing between room numbers and your schedule. Finally, you find the room you were looking for.

You let yourself into a silent celebration before pushing your way into the room. "Sorry I'm late," you say before gazing at all of the students.

Among them is Kitagawa, and you feel all of your confidence in finally finding the art room drain out of you. You wish you hadn't found it.

"No worries, you're the transfer student, right?" the teacher asks and you nod your head. "Why don't you find a seat and I'll come over and explain what we're working on, okay?" she says.

Without another word, you turn and search for a seat that's far away from Kitagawa. You want to make it extremely clear you're not interested in befriending anyone. You find an empty seat away from him and near some girl who's working away at her project.

She notices your presence there almost immediately and looks up at you. "Oh, hello..." she says. "I didn't think you would come over here."

You sigh on the inside. Why couldn't she just be like everyone else and ignore you? You only had two years left in school, you could make it without friends.

"Hello..." you trail off, hoping and praying that the teacher will come over to you faster.

"I'm Hifumi Togo, what's your name?" she asks.

You have to try and remember introductions don't necessarily have to mean a friendship will be started. That's one of your hopes at least. "(F/n) (L/n)," you answer shortly.

"Well, (L/n)... welcome to Kosei High School," she says.

So that was the name of your school? You probably would have known that if you'd just been paying attention. Then you hear something behind you and prepare to put on a small smile for your art teacher, but instead, you're met with Kitagawa standing over you. "Hello again," he says. "If I'd have known we had the same art class, I could have helped you find it."

Togo looks between you and Kitagawa. "Mm? (L/n), is he bothering you?" she asks.

What a kind soul. You wish you could have said yes so that the girl could make him go away. But in reality, the boy with navy hair had done nothing wrong so it wouldn't be fair of you to have said that. "No, it's okay," you assure her.

You sense a little tension between the two. "Do you mind if I take the seat there?" Kitagawa asks, pointing to the chair on the other side of you, which would leave you between him and Togo.

"What if she doesn't want you to, Kitagawa?" Togo asks.

"Then she'll tell me," the boy retorts, furrowing his eyebrows together. His face softens again when he looks at you. "Won't you?"

You nod your head, feeling as though you've no other choice. You wish you weren't so nice sometimes. "You can sit here," you say.

Togo looks almost astonished. Perhaps she had pegged you wrong after all.

A smile spreads across Kitagawa's face at your answer. "I'll be back. I need to get my things," he says. Once he's gone, Togo looks at you immediately.

"Why did you let him sit here? He probably only wants to because you're a girl," she says.

You tilt your head a little. "Should I not have let him?" you ask.

"You don't get it, do you," Togo says. "Yusuke Kitagawa flirts with a lot of girls, he's no good," she explains.

You never really were a fan of guys like Kitagawa. Their ways just made no sense to you. "Sorry... I guess I'm just too nice..." After that, Kitagawa arrives and sits down in the seat you gave him permission to. He sets down his supplies and sketchbook in front of himself.

"So, how are you liking Kosei so far?" he asks as he readies his pencil to draw again.

"Liking what?" you ask.

"The school...?" Kitagawa replies, turning his head to look confusedly at you.

It seems within that short moment, you had forgotten the name of your school. "Oh... well... I don't know, I guess I feel more out of place than welcome," you answer truthfully.

"Where did you used to go?" Togo asks.

"Shujin," you answer. "Near Shibuya."

Both Kitagawa and Togo look astonished by your answer. "Really? Shujin? So, you know about the whole scandal with the volleyball coach, right?" Kitagawa asks. "And the Phantom Thieves? I hear they go there too."

Phantom Thieves? That was the first you had ever heard of that name.

"Kitagawa, don't be insensitive. You don't know if she was part of that!" Togo scolds him.

"O-Oh! I didn't even think of that, I apologize, you don't need to answer," Kitagawa says.

"Do you ever think of anything?" Togo mutters.

You wave your hands immediately. "No, no, it's fine, it's not like that," you assure them. "I knew a couple people who were involved though... including Shiho Suzui..." you say. "However, I don't think I've heard of the Phantom Thieves."

"Really? It's all over the media. The police are saying maybe they could be behind Suguru Kamoshida's confession, like maybe they threatened him. Apparently there were calling cards posted all around the school. If you really are from Shujin, I'm seriously surprised you haven't heard the name," Kitagawa explains.

If it's truly as he said, and even students this far away from Shujin knew about it, it must have proven how much you didn't pay attention. "I see... well I guess I usually just kept to myself while I went there... I prefer it that way," you reply.

Before any further conversation can ensue, your art teacher approaches and begins explaining the means of your art project. You were never really that great at art, but you needed at least one credit in order to graduate so you did what you needed to do.

As you start to brainstorm ideas for what to do, you look between Kitagawa and Togo's projects. You're not sure how you didn't observe them before. They're both wonderful, but you can see a bit more of an artistic taste in Kitagawa's piece. "Wow, you're both really talented..." you say. You didn't mean to say that out loud.

"Oh, this?" Togo says. "Sure, art is nice, but I'm better at playing Shogi than drawing," she explains. "Drawing is more Kitagawa's thing."

You look over at Kitagawa who doesn't lift his eyes from the page. He seems more in tune with the details of his piece, so you can tell that Togo's words are truthful. "Yeah, Hifumi's actually known around here for being a Shogi prodigy. Not that playing board games is anything special," he says.

Togo scoffs. "Hmph. At least I'm not learning how to plagiarize." She definitely got offended by his comment.

Kitagawa went silent after that and shaking his head, he just went back to drawing.

The conversations from then on seemed pointless as it was just mindless small talk.

Lunch came to pass without so much as a bite of food. You were really hungry now and by the time school ended, things really started to hit you. You would have to retrace your peaceful steps of the morning and go back to that prison of a household with your father. And that was something you absolutely did not want at all.

When you set foot outside of the school, you see Kitagawa leaning against a tree with a sketchbook clutched to his chest in one hand while the other held a pencil. On the other hand, you saw Togo walking by herself toward the inside of the school again after having talked to a few friends.

You made a decision in your head quickly about who you were going to ask to elongate your time away from home (though, could you really call it home? You knew your true home was back at Shibuya). You started jogging-- an activity you don't do often-- over to Togo and slowed your pace beside her.

"Hey, um... are you busy today? I was hoping maybe we could do something," you say sheepishly to her. Your heart races in your chest, the fear of rejection looming over you like some hungry animal.

Togo turns her head to you, stopping in her tracks to talk. "Oh, yeah, sorry. There's a Shogi tournament coming up and I have to practice. You could come and watch if you wanted to," she says with a small smile.

As much as you preferred the idea of not going home, you weren't sure if you'd rather spend time watching games of Shogi.

"Oh, ah..." you trail off, your eyes flicking back toward the tree you had seen Kitagawa standing near. But he wasn't there, and realizing this, your eyes start frantically searching for him and find him heading toward the bike stands. "No, that's okay. Maybe another time," you say quickly.

She nods in agreement with you and you both head your separate ways. By now, Kitagawa has mounted a bike and you make it to him just before he's about to leave. "Oh, (L/n), what's up?" he asks.

"Uhh..." you say, out of breath. "I see you're about to head home but... I was wondering if maybe you wanted to do something today." Your exhaustion from running has made you carefree in asking if he was free.

Kitagawa looks at you like you've got two heads, slack-jawed as he breathes out a "huh...?" He stays like that for a moment, and it's almost amusing how dumbfounded he is about the question. "You're being serious right now?" he asks.

You nod your head in response, waiting for his answer. "Well, uh... we could go back to my place, if that's fine with you. I've got my bike but you could ride on the pegs," he says.

You figure that's better than going home so you're happy to agree. "Sure, that would be fine," you reply.

He's still in absolute disbelief about this whole situation, you notice and he rolls his bike forward a little bit. "Well, hop on then," he says.

You walk over to his bike's back tire and step onto the pegs, realizing you'll have to hang onto Kitagawa's shoulders in order to stay on while he's riding. "Um... are you sure you'll be able to pedal with both of us on?" you ask.

"Yeah, no worries," he assures you.

Once you find yourself steady, he gets up onto the seat and starts pedaling you both along. Awhile into the ride though, you notice that it's taking rather long to get there and you're almost a little nervous about his true intentions. You barely know this guy, so how's it not right of you to be at least a little curious about whether or not he's about to take you to some shack in the middle of the woods?

"Hey, are we almost there?" you ask loudly over the wind from the momentum bellowing in your ears.

"Yeah, sorry it's taking so long. I don't exactly have money for the commute so it takes a little while to get from school to my house." What a true hero, you think. You could never bring yourself to wake up early every morning just to ride a bike to get to school. It wouldn't be worth it to you at that point.

Soon, you're both inching your way up a huge hill. "Hey, um... do you want me to get off? You seem like you're struggling a little," you ask. You notice the back of Kitagawa's neck is sweating a bit and even in the lowest gear on his bike, he's still struggling to make it to the top of this hill.

"No, no, it's fine," he says back through deep breaths. "Besides, going down this hill will be worth it, it's great," he says.

You're still not too convinced by his response, but if he insists that he can do it, it's not really your place to deny him.

Once you finally come to the crest of the hill, you see him shift the gears on his bike to the highest setting. "Ready? We're about to go really fast," he says.

You cling just a little tighter to Kitagawa after he says this and also after seeing the length of said hill. "Ready as I'll ever be," you say nervously.

After you start going downhill, a smile hits your face as the wind whipping past you blows through your hair and cools your skin from the young summer air. To your right, you can see you're riding right beside a river which becomes a waterfall, spilling into the other part of the river below.

"A waterfall?!" you exclaim, mouth agape as you ride past it. You were always a sucker for such pretty things like that.

"Yeah! It's one of the best parts about this ride!" Kitagawa shouts back at you over the wind.

Once you at last begin to slow down, you speak once more. "You know, I used to live right around here so I'm surprised I never knew about this place," you say.

"Do you want to stop and sit?" he asks.

You can tell the poor boy is probably tuckered out from that hill so, to be courteous to him you agree. Kitagawa comes to a stop and you both dismount the bike. He leans it against a nearby tree and collapses into a sitting position beside it, reclining on his hands while he watches you observing the scenery from behind the protective fence, probably put in place to keep people from jumping or falling.

"It's so pretty," you say, marveling at the waterfall.

"Yeah, I know. I think I see it a lot so over time the beauty of it starts to fade out on me," Kitagawa says. "But I stopped here a few days and actually drew it."

You turn to look at the boy. "Really? Do you have the drawing on you?" you ask him. You're almost completely sure he must've recreated the scenery really well on paper, so you're interested in seeing it.

"Unfortunately no, but I can show you once we get to my house," he says.

"Oh, sure," you reply with a smile.

Kitagawa gives you a curious look. "Say... why did you want to hang out with me today?" he asks. "It's just, before you seemed like you wanted nothing to do with me."

 

You looked down and to the side. "Well, I guess I just didn't want to go home right yet," you respond. "And, sorry about how I acted today... it's just... lately I've been seeing how being friends with people just seems to hurt them in the end so... I sort of wanted to avoid making any new friends at Kosei," you explained.

Kitagawa shrugs, looking up at you. "That's understandable," he says before standing once more. "All right, I think I'm ready to keep going," he says. You think you both understand at this point that you stopped more for him and less for you.

"Okay," you reply, and with that, you both set off again.

About ten more minutes pass and you at last arrive at an unexpectedly nice home. Kitagawa parks his bike beside the entrance and invites you in. You marvel at such a nice place and wonder how it is that he can't pay for the daily commute to and from school. "Wow, Kitagawa, this place is beautiful," you say.

"Oh, you don't have to call me Kitagawa, just call me Yusuke," he says. "Anyway, it's not technically mine. It's Ichiryusai Madarame's home. I'm his pupil and he lets me stay for free."

You look over at him with a confused look and he looks back. "What?" he asks. "Don't tell me you don't know who Madarame is," he says.

You give him an apologetic look because you really have no idea who he's talking about. "He's a very famous artist! The one who painted the 'Sayuri'!" he exclaims.

You're still very confused by all these names and, noticing this, Yusuke gives a sigh. "You really don't pay much attention to media, do you?" he asks.

You laugh a little and shake your head. After that, he led you to his room where the two of you spent time playing a video game for awhile until you both wound up on his bed with him using you as a subject for drawing.

"Try not to move too much, (L/n)," he tells you, even though you're already being as still as you can.

"I'm really trying here, Yusuke," you say.

"Almost done, just a few more details," he assures you.

Soon, he's finally finished and the product of his work, looks very similar to your face, maybe even better. "Wow, you're so good, Yusuke," you say to him. "Shujin doesn't really have a lot of talented people... I think a lot of the students were just really depressed and trying to get through life," you joke.

He catches on with it and laughs a little. "Aren't all high school students though?" he asks. Then, setting his sketchbook aside, he moves a little closer to you. "That aside though, why did you move from Shujin?"

Hugging you knee against your chest, you look down and quickly try to think of an excuse to tell him so you don't have to reveal the truth. "Um... I guess with all the drama going on with Kamoshida it was just too much to handle," you lie.

"Mm..." Yusuke trails off. "I guess when you put it that way, I can see where you'd want to get away from it," he says.

But when he speaks, a realization occurs within you. You realize that you truly loved Shujin Academy as much as you used to act like you hated it. You missed it dearly. "...I wish it were the truth..." you say.

Raising an eyebrow, Yusuke leans out of his comfortable position and moves his body forward to catch your gaze. "What?" he asks.

Your eyes are on the floor. "It's a lot, Yusuke..." you reply. "But the last thing I want is to drag you down into it too..." You look over at him and notice his face is shown with genuine concern.

"...you seem like you need to get it off your chest. It's not good to hold things inside," he says.

You regret everything you're about to say, but once you start, you can't stop until you're in tears. You told him everything. All the things about your mother, your father... and finally the conversation shifted to Akira.

"He transferred to the school almost a month ago now... and he... he's so wonderful, Yusuke, you don't even understand." By now you're saying things through blurred vision and a shaky tone. Yusuke is unclear with your personal boundary line and, as much as he wants to, he refrains from leaning forward to comfort you while you pour your heart out about this boy.

"He's so caring and puts so much trust into me that I don't deserve from him. All I want is to be as good to him as he is to me b-but..." you stutter. "W-Well, we hung out last week and when I got home, my father found out about it and he beat me because I snuck out. H-He was willing to throw himself into danger in order to protect me. I guess because of all that had happened and with me wanting to be a better friend, I told him not to talk to me again so that I could finally protect him," you explain. "A-And Yusuke I..."

"It sounds to me like you love him," Yusuke says since you lost your words somehow.

Your teary eyes lift and look to him. "...what?" you ask. "But... he's my friend," you say.

Yusuke chuckles a little bit. "No, no. Friendship is a little different. The way your eyes light up when you talk about him, and the way you so intricately describe him, as though you spend a lot of time studying him, it's just not how it is when you're friends with someone. No, what you feel is much deeper than friendship," he says. "There is no greater art than the art of love."

"I... love Akira...?"


	10. What It’s Like to Lose

The next couple of days that passed you by were nothing short of absolute Hell. Without your medicine and Akira to keep you sane, you suffered quite a few panic attacks while at school, but you tried to keep them discrete. But you were glad since because of it, you had grown a little closer to Hifumi (which she granted you permission to call her) and Yusuke.

They were almost like your off-brand Akira and Ann. Even though the two were almost constantly at each other's throats (which made it impossible to hang out with them together), they still made coming to school worth while.

Now that May had come, it was time for break, which meant that you truly were going to be dreading the three days off of school. It was Wednesday and school had just ended, which meant your break had just begun. You supposed now was as good a time as ever to ask your father about filling your prescription.

But before you can begin your walk home, you hear voices behind you calling your name and turn to face them. It's Hifumi and Yusuke. "Hey, (F/n)!" exclaims the boy walking beside Hifumi.

You stop walking and fully turn your body to them. "Hey guys... something wrong?" you ask.

"Well, since it's break, Yusuke was thinking all three of us could do something tonight. There's a carnival going on by the harbor and I was going to pay for you two to come along," Hifumi explains.

"Oh, Hifumi. You don't have to do that, we could just do something else together," you say.

"Nah, there's no convincing her when she's made up her mind, just go along with it," Yusuke says. "It'll be fun."

"Yusuke told me about your situation—"

"Hifumi!" Yusuke shouts, cutting her off.

Hifumi reaches her hand over and backhands the boy in the chest. "And I wanted to do something nice for you since you're going through such a hard time," she finishes.

You look off to the side and mess with your fingers. "Well, I guess I never told him not to tell anyone but... it's not exactly a secret. Still, you didn't have to go and do that because of me," you say.

"You seemed really on edge and stuff lately so I wanted us to do something to get your mind off it. I'm sorry I didn't ask to tell her..." Yusuke says.

"Besides, this kind of thing is what friends are supposed to do. So quit moping about it and let yourself have fun!" Hifumi exclaims.

"Eh... sorry about that. My medication ran out a few days ago so I've been a little off recently," you confess.

After that, Hifumi steps past you and heads to the sidewalk. "Don't worry, we're going to have a lot of fun. The harbor's close to the school so we'll head over now," she says.

You were all still in your school uniforms but you supposed that didn't matter too much now. You'd rather just go than have to stop at home to change.

And so, off the three of you went to the harbor, and upon making it a little further, you could begin to see some of the cheap rides and stands advertising their handmade items for sale and above all else, carnival games that are so unreasonably unfair that you can't even hope to win any of the cheap stuffed animals staring at you with their huge, adorable eyes, begging you to take them home.

There was no rush between any of you to do anything in particular immediately so you made your rounds between different activities. You, Yusuke and Hifumi played a few games together such as the water shooters and ring tosses. After Hifumi got bored of those games though, she invited you to come along with her to some of the shop tents. Yusuke wasn't as interested though and went off to play a few other games, all of you agreeing to meet by the feris wheel when you were done.

Hifumi took you to a few of the places selling jewelry, but nothing really stood out as special to you.

"Come on, (F/n). This necklace is super cute, let me get it for you," she begs you, presenting a pretty necklace.

You shake your head. "Hifumi, seriously, it's okay. I'm not really a jewelry person," you reply.

She hangs her head in defeat and puts back the necklace. "At least let me get you something," she says. "That way you can be reminded of me if we're apart."

Sighing softly, you begin to search around for some kind of necklace, bracelet or ring that might catch your eye. The one you discovered was a kanji which wrote "friendship" that hung down from a simple silver chain. "This one," you say and hand her the necklace.

Smiling, she takes the necklace to the person running the tent while you hang around near one of the stakes holding down the canopy. Your eyes drift around all of the people walking around either with stuffed animals (which you can never understand how they got them) or balloons— and then one or two people pass sharing fried dumplings with one another. The smell is rather captivating and you decide that you need to have one.

When Hifumi meets up with you, she hands you the box with your necklace in it then straightens out her skirt. "So, any place you wanted to go next?" she asks.

"If it's okay, I'd like to try one of the fried dumplings," you say.

Hifumi smiles a little. "Sure, we can get some," she replies and then you both disappear into the crowd of people, her hand grabbing yours while you two budge through others.

With the length of time you were walking, you were starting to doubt she even knew where she was going and that at this point, you both were just wandering aimlessly. "Hifumi, do you even know where the food vendors are?" you ask her as soon as your constant bumping and brushing against other people becomes too much for you.

"Nope!" she chirps as she continues dragging you through the carnival.

Finally you see a lit up sign advertising food, but more importantly, fried dumplings. "Hifumi! Over there!" you exclaim, pointing excitedly at the long lost stand.

She follows your finger to the direction of the vendor, but as you push past people, one person in particular gets especially offended, and it's just as you finally reach the line. "Hey! Watch where you're goin'!" You jump at the male voice's sharp tone and turn to him so that you can apologize, but something chokes you up.

That boy with blonde hair who you saw hanging out with Akira the day you left. What was he doing here? "...you?" you ask him. He looks equally as shocked to see you.

"Hey, why don't you respect our wishes to get some fried dumplings and maybe we wouldn't push you!" Hifumi growls at the boy.

"Uhh..." the blonde murmurs with an urgent tone. "Yeah, sorry, I gotta go," he says before being swallowed up by the crowd.

Your eyes follow him, staying fixed in the direction he had disappeared until you feel a tug on your arm. "Come on, let's get in line before it gets too long. We came all this way," Hifumi says and drags you into the line.

You say nothing because you're too distracted by that boy. It was definitely a strange happening and you can't imagine why a boy from Shujin would be all the way out here. You settle on the thought that he's probably here having fun like everyone else. But you can't shake the thought that maybe Akira is here with him.

Fifteen minutes passes and you finally get what you came to that vendor for, eating it with a feeling of happiness. It tastes really good. "We should probably start heading to the feris wheel to meet Yusuke," you say to Hifumi while you two stood beneath the awning of the food truck.

She finishes up her mouthful of food before answering you. "He's trying to get me to ride it because he knows I'm scared of heights," she says then reaches into her pockets, pulling out the remainder of your tickets. "There should be enough there for the two of you to ride. I'm going to head to the docks and hang out there to see the fireworks up close," she explains and hands the bundle of tickets to you.

You nod your head and smile at her. "If that's fine with you. We'll meet you there after," you say.

With that, you both part ways and you start heading through the crowd of people once again. Thankfully, the feris wheel stands out a lot more than the vendor, so it's not that hard to navigate toward. When you reach the wheel of glowing lights, you see Yusuke standing near its base with one of those goddamn giant stuffed animals clutched beneath his arm.

You finally reach him with a little bit of your dumplings left. "Hey, you want the rest of this?" you ask him and his eyes light up.

"Oh, god yes. I've seen so many people holding them and they smell amazing," Yusuke replies and takes the dumplings from you, handing you the giant panda bear in exchange. "You can have that by the way. I don't want it," he says.

"Oh, well um, thank you," you reply and look down at the tickets in your free hand. "Hifumi gave me the rest of the tickets, do you want to ride this with me?" you ask, gesturing to the feris wheel.

"Yeah, sure," Yusuke replies. "I wanted Hifumi to ride it too because I think her fear of heights is irrational, but I guess just the two of us will have to do."

"She says she'll be by the docks so we can meet her there when we're done," you say.

Once Yusuke finishes with the rest of the dumplings, he tosses out the little basket they were given to you in and the two of you get in line for the feris wheel. You're one of the first to get in for the next ride, so you're both slowly hoisted up toward the top as it loads up the rest of its passengers.

You sit on one side with the panda while Yusuke sits on the other and while you wait for the ride to begin, you find yourself lost in the many lights shining below you and all the people which look like ants from this height.

"You ever get scared these things might just collapse? Or one of the carriages will snap?" Yusuke asks, grabbing your attention.

"Oh, no I've never really ridden on one. But thank God if that ever happened," you say jokingly and Yusuke laughs along with you.

"Something distracting you down there?" he asks you, noticing you're looking out again.

"Oh, it's nothing," you say. You're not very good at lying though unfortunately and end up exposing the truth anyway. "It's just... while Hifumi and I were going to get the dumplings, I bumped into one of Akira's friends and since then... well, I can't escape the feeling that maybe they're here together with Ann," you say.

The carriage falls silent after that, all except for the creeking of the feris wheel every time it moves a little to board its passengers and of course the unclear voices of people below you. You feel the warmth from your panda beside you fade away and you look away from the outside world to look at why your comfort had left you.

You find that it had been replaced by Yusuke's presence and he lets out a sigh. "I can tell you miss him, (F/n). I don't understand why you're keeping yourself from talking to him," he says.

"I don't want to hurt him... and I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that he might be annoyed with how I've pushed him away," you explain. "So maybe he's moved on..." you trail off.

Yusuke looks up in thought, placing a hand on his chin. "Well... how do you know unless you try and find out? Maybe he's just respecting your wishes," he says.

You shake your head. "I need to move on," you say, gripping the fabric of your skirt.

Again, Yusuke releases a sigh before reaching an arm around your back and pulling you against his chest. "You don't need to move on. You just have to let go of your fear of forming a meaningful relationship," he says. "Face it, this has nothing to do with your dad or him... you're scared of screwing it all up so you just want nothing to do with it."

While your cheek is pressed into Yusuke, you take a few moments to think about what he'd said. And the more you think about it, the more it makes sense to you, and realizing it makes you feel extremely foolish. "The only one keeping you from him is you," Yusuke says.

You feel pain swell in your chest and your eyes fill with tears. You let out a breath to try and alleviate the intense feeling but it comes out in a sob and you can't help but to hug him back. "Thank you, Yusuke," you whisper through a sob.

You feel his hand start to rub your back in an attempt to make you feel better and eventually, you allow yourself to calm down. You haven't realized it until now, but it seems the feris wheel has begun moving and almost as soon as you do, Yusuke puts some space between the two of you. "No more tears tonight, okay? You're supposed to be having fun, so let's enjoy this for now," he says.

Pulling in a deep breath, you nod your head and try to clear your mind. The ride is long, so the time you'd spent crying didn't much take away from the time you got to enjoy the scenery outside the feris wheel. Every ride and stand and vendor was all lit up by lights.

"The fireworks are going to start soon so we should meet Hifumi by the docks when we're all done," Yusuke says as you both begin to notice that the ride is slowing down.

You nod your head and smile a little, but it quickly fades away when the ride suddenly jerks to a stop. You and Yusuke share a mortified look with one another as your carriage swings back and forth.

"...don't tell me that was the ride breaking..." Yusuke says.

Carefully, you lean your face closer to the grated opening on the feris wheel so you can look to see what the issue is. You look down below and see that the two men standing near the control panel for the ride are talking to one another, even though you can't hear them. One if them then steps to the microphone which is wired through some speakers in the carriage.

"We're sorry, but unfortunately the ride is experiencing a few technical difficulties. We ask that you please stay calm for now until we get it working again."

The man's voice pretty much confirms Yusuke's suspicions. "What do we do now?" you ask.

"Shit," Yusuke says. "I mean... there's not much we can do. We're kinda stuck," he says before pulling out his phone. "The fireworks are going to start in ten minutes." He sighs. "I'll call Hifumi and let her know what's going on."

You both were stuck toward the top of the wheel so it was a little more scary than if you were near the bottom.

When Yusuke finishes his phone call with Hifumi (which you had blocked out), he turns to you and sighs. "That girl sometimes..." he mutters. "She thinks I'm some kind of bad dude that's trying to take advantage of you." He rolls his eyes. "Anyway though, at least we'll have a good view of the fireworks," he says.

"Yeah..." you murmur with a nod.

The time you guys spent being stuck wasn't all that terrible. The fireworks were really pretty which you got good pictures of, and shortly after they ended the ride was fixed and the two of you were able to get off the feris wheel.

Afterward, Hifumi had agreed to meet the both of you at the entrance to the carnival since it was getting late now.

"So how was being stuck on the feris wheel, Yusuke?" Hifumi asks with a sarcastic tone.

The boy growls back, clenching his fists. "Hifumi, I told you, we really did get stuck," he says.

"Oh yeah, and what'd you two do up there, make out?"

You could tell from the demeanor of her questions that Yusuke hadn't told her the whole story when he explained your situation to her.

"Hifumi, I promise you, nothing bad happened up there," you assure her before hearing her sigh.

"As long as you insist, (F/n). Anyway, I've got to head home, so I'll see you guys at school on Monday, okay?" she says before parting after saying goodbye.

You and Yusuke are left, but not for much longer. "Yeah, I should probably head home too. See you around," he says.

"All right, Yusuke. Bye." The two of you exchange waves to one another before you're left on your own.

You draw in a deep breath before deciding to head home yourself. You had a relatively good day despite not having your medicine and walking home didn't spike your awareness that your father might be angry about you getting home so late.

But thankfully, when you walk inside, you don't see your father anywhere and hurry to your room before that changes. You set down the huge panda Yusuke had given to you on your bed and decide it's probably safe enough for you to get a drink.

However, once your feet take you to the kitchen, you realize that you were sorely mistaken. "(F/n)," your father says. "Did you write this?" he asks.

You look at him confused and see that he's holding something between his fingers. "What?" you ask, but don't dare set foot closer to him to see what it is.

"'Mr. (L/n),

You are a dirty drunkard scum bag who wishes nothing but the destruction of those around him. Throwing your fists around at others like your beautiful daughter and her poor mother when the one who deserves it is you. We're coming to steal away those sick intentions.

—The Phantom Thieves'"

Your father looks at you after reading these words off the card in his hand. "Did you write this?" he asks more sternly.

There was that name again. "Phantom Thieves". Just who were they?

"No, I didn't write it..." you say and quickly start getting yourself a glass of water so you can escape to your room before he tries to accuse you of writing that message.

"Well some bastard did. Stay in your room tonight. I'm locking everything up," he says. It seems he's sober enough. So, after nodding your head, you rush to your bedroom, shutting the door and not even caring if you get locked inside.

Your heart starts to rush as something dawns upon you. What if that note was written by Akira? Was he "The Phantom Thieves"? It made sense since you knew he was affiliated with the whole Kamoshida incident at your school. What was he going to do?

Setting your cup aside, you quickly pulled out your phone to text Akira.

You: I saw the calling card.

You: Whatever you're planning to do. Stop now.

But there was no stopping this.

You perk up after hearing a noise from outside and rush to the window which faces the backyard, your gut filling with worry.

"Shit," you whisper.

Just as you suspected, there you saw not only Akira, but Ann and that blonde boy you saw at the carnival earlier. No. You had to stop this.

You rush to your other window, forcing it open and start scrambling your way down the tree beside it.

"No, no, no," you whisper. In your haste, you'd missed a few steps on the way down and fell out of the tree, some branches snapping and falling to the ground with you. But no matter how much it hurt, you still stand quickly and start running around the house to the back.

"Akira! Stop!" you shout. But the last thing you see is Ann's tail end disappear into nothingness.

You feel your heart sink, feeling like maybe it was an illusion. You run forward to see if your suspicions were correct. But... when you do. You find yourself no longer surrounded by a night sky, and rather... a deep red sky.

What was this place?


	11. Get Out

That deep red sky surrounded your body. It felt unreal, as though the air you breathed didn't exist and the ground beneath your feet was nothing but a cloud.

But you were sure this is where you saw those three enter through. Standing beside you was an enormous coliseum with bright lights waving around rhytmically. "What...?" you murmur softly. Not only are you no longer at your house, but you've no idea where you are and now Akira and the rest are no where in sight. "What is this place...?" you ask yourself.

Regardless, you still have to find where those three went off to and put a stop to this. You breathe in deeply and approach this structure, walking in through one of the exits. You're taken to a relatively empty hallway which isn't as lit up as the outside was. "Akira?!" you shout. "Ann?! Where are you guys?!"

You continue onward through this strange place, starting to wonder if you've dreamt it up.

"Hey," a distorted voice snaps at you. "Why aren't you in your cage?" You turn toward the voice that spoke only to meet with someone appearing to be a medieval knight.

"Huh...?" you murmur.

"You know you're not allowed out unless Gladiator (D/n) is ready for you."

You scrunch your eyebrows when you hear your father's name. You're sure now that this must be a dream. You had to have dozed off when you got to your room. It seemed convincing.

'*Come on... just wake up then...*' you think to yourself. But you're soon cut off when you feel a hand yank the back of your shirt, yanking you until you fall to the floor. You yelp out of pain, a gag escaping you. But the grip on you doesn't leave and instead, continues dragging you across the floor. "Stop! What are you doing?!" you yell.

You're dragged for quite a long distance and the way you were being held caused your shirt to squeeze your neck tightly and when at last the Hellish ride was over, you were tossed heinously into a dark room. The last thing you see is the empty face of that knight.

While you lie there trying to catch your breath, that being the only noise within the room, you try to look around to see if there's an exit. All you can see is a small crack of light. But then you hear something that startles you.

"Who's there...?" a weak voice calls out. But the strangest part is that it sounds like you.

You hesitate to answer at first but you allow yourself to anyway. "H...Hello?" you ask.

"Come closer... I can't see you," the voice says.

You sit up slowly after that, eyes fixed in the direction you had heard this voice. You wait for a moment, trying to decide if you should approach or stay back. But your curiosity gets the best of you and you start to slowly inch your way toward it.

The small amount of light coming through allows you to see just a sliver of the person. They're laying there lifelessly on the floor, but that's not the most horrifying part. They look exactly like you, only weaker and more sickly. "You... You look like me," she says.

"What is this place? How do we get out of here?" you ask.

"...huh...? We can't get out until Gladiator (D/n) is finished with mom..." the other you says.

You furrow your eyebrows a bit. "Mom...?" you ask.

The other you lifts a shaky hand toward the crack of light, pointing to it. "Look," she says.

You crawl over toward the crack and peek your eye through it to see what's going on. You see a crowd cheering ravidly for a huge man dressed in gold armor while he beats down on a woman who looks exactly like your mother. "M-Mom?! How did she get here to?! We have to help her!" you yell, starting to pound on the door which only makes a loud crashing noise.

"We can't..." the other you trails off. "If you are who I think you are, you should know already how things work around here... we hide in here until he's finished with her... and then..." you hear a sob from her.

The sad truth is, even though the place you're dreaming of is nothing like the real world, its mechanics are far too similar. The minutes pass by far too fast and soon, a loud noise strikes your ears.

When you look up, you see that it appears to be a large gate which is opening in front of you, and a few yards away, you can see this "Gladiator" waiting for you to approach. Fear overwhelms you and you can't bring yourself to move. The other you is hiding in the shadows, which is why when another knight came in, he mistook you for the actual one who was to go outside. He held a javelin to your back which prevented you from fighting against having to walk out of that cage.

As you emerged, a certain someone was watching this play out from the shadows. His gray eyes got wide upon seeing you, and his body pressed against the railing of the walkway on the upper level. "What?! That's (F/n)!" he exclaims quietly.

"Dude, come on, we've already seen this before and I don't wanna watch this again," the blonde that once was walking ahead of him says. He reaches forward and tugs his leather jacket but Akira rips away his arm.

"How do you not see it? That's the real (F/n). She doesn't look anything like the cognitive one," he says, gripping tightly onto the railing.

"What? But how did she get here?" Ann asks from beside him.

"She must've followed us. Courtesy of Skull for being so loud," hisses Morgana.

"Watch it, cat."

Akira narrows his eyes, watching as you're inched toward the man clad in gold. He's quickly decided that he can't continue forward. "She's in danger. You three go ahead and secure the treasure. I'll hold him off," he says.

"Are you crazy? That's suicide!" Morgana replies.

His gray eyes flick down toward the cat. "She'll die if I don't do something, now go!" he snaps.

With looks of uncertainty in their eyes, Mona, Panther and Skull part ways with their leader, leaving him to think of a plan.

"Hm... I don't remember you being able to stand on two feet." That's definitely the voice of your father you're hearing through the suit of armor encasing him. He removes his helmet carelessly before finishing off a glass of what looks like wine before throwing it aside, shattering it. "Maybe whipping you into shape has been working." He puts his helmet back on before the sword hanging by his side hisses as he removes it from the scabbard, pointing it at you when he does.

"You're nothing but a dream," you say. "You can't hurt me. In fact, go ahead and kill me. I'll just wake up." You hold out your arms.

Your father tilts his head. "You're really making yourself into an open target? Hmph... maybe you're more stupid than I thought," he says.

He then readies his sword and it's almost amusing to you to watch him run at you like this. However... something slowly begins to overcome you; a sinking feeling that's telling you... maybe this isn't a dream. By the time you realize this, it's too late. His sword is already inches from your body.

You shut your eyes tightly, bracing for excruciating pain.

But instead, you're met with a familiar warmth enveloping your body and carrying you off the ground. The smell of leather infiltrates your nose and you hear a thunderous "what?!" straight after.

When you open your eyes from the surprising sensations, you're astonished to see Akira's face looking at you through a black and white mask. "Are you okay?" he asks.

"Akira...?" you say breathlessly, only to be cut off by a red gloved finger being held to your lips.

"You can't call me that here... you need to use the name 'Joker'," he says.

What was going on? Codenames? And what was that getup? "I'm okay, but—" you start to say but are cut off again.

"Stay here," he demands you before setting you down and standing up. When he turns, the tails on his trench coat flow with the momentum. "You're through with hurting her," he says to your father.

"You insolent brat. She's my daughter, you can't do anything to stop me!" he shouts back, gripping tightly onto the hilt of his sword.

"We'll see about that," Akira replies. You see his arm reach up before removing the mask across his face. You see it and his entire body be enveloped by blue flames. "Arsene!"

Before your very eyes you see a large creature twice his size be materialized from those blue flames. Black wings shoot from what you assume to be its back and its hands don long black claws. You scoot yourself away from it quickly, watching wide-eyed for its next move. "Eigaon!" you hear Akira yell.

The creature which appeared behind him lunges forth its hand, which causes a plume of deep black and red to fire toward your father.

"What?!" he shouts in astonishment. His distorted voice starts to grunt and growl while he holds onto his head. "You fool..."

The creature standing beside Akira dissipates into thin air then, he springs back onto his hands, doing a flip before grabbing you once more so you're at a safer distance. "Make sure you stay clear of him, this is going to get dangerous," he says.

You nod your head, too speechless to answer in words. Again, he sets you down and readies a dagger in his right hand. Not two seconds later do three other people join the battle, jumping in from above.

"Need some back up?" Ann's voice asks. Even she's dressed differently. And the blonde boy's standing there too. Not only him but there's a cat standing on two legs as well who you can only assume to be Morgana.

"Did you get the treasure?" Akira asks them.

When he does, the blonde boy holds out a large gauntlet. "Got it right here, dude," he says.

"What?! You stole the ceremonial gauntlet?! Why, you..." your father trails off. "I've had enough of you fiendish thieves! I'll deal with you myself!" his distorted voice grew even more indistinguishable from a demon. His body then melts away into shadows until his form re-materializes into something much larger than his previous form. It resembled something uglier. It almost reminded you of a sumo wrestler.

"Everyone, please be careful!" you yell at them from your spot on the ground.

"Don't worry about us," Akira says.

"Your little boyfriend is right, (F/n). You'd better worry more about yourself!" the shadow growls (since you can't really see how you could possibly call this man your father anymore).

This grabs your attention quickly. From his large, overflowing body of lard, a hand forms into a fist before lunging at you.

"Let's go, Captain!" the blonde boy yells.

Before the fist can reach you, another of those creatures forms in front of it, this time some kind of skeleton pirate standing on a floating ghost ship. It grabs onto the hand and forces it back.

"Nice one, Skull. But this place is too dangerous for her to stay," Morgana says. It's strange to think that sweet cat has changed into something completely different, acting like a human with thoughts and feelings (which makes you think of that time you changed in front of him very briefly).

"Right, so what do we do?" Ann asks him.

Akira's eyes narrow for a moment as he tries to think of what to do. "You three stay. I'll take her back to the real world," he says. "Can you handle it?"

"We'll be down one, but I'm sure we can pull it off! Besides, it'll all be pointless if she's hurt in the end, right?" the blonde asks.

Akira nods his head before running toward you and lifting you into his arms again once he reaches you.

"What?! No one's escaping!" shouts the shadow, another fist forming out of his body.

Akira turns toward it and shifts your weight so he's carrying you with only one arm (how is he so strong?), then pulls out a pistol and fires it at the hand a few times. "I'm counting on you all," he says. Once he's held off the shadow, he begins running away from the scene with you in both arms once again.

"Aki-- I-I mean Joker! Are you sure they'll be all right?" you ask him as he starts weaving through the rather intricate pathways of this coliseum.

"Yes, I have faith in them, they can do it," he says.

"Where are we?" you ask.

Joker looks down at you. "Listen, I'm sure you have a lot of questions right now, but I need to focus on getting you out of here, okay?" he says.

You stop yourself from trying to ask another question and stay quiet for the remainder of the time. But that didn't mean you could stop thinking about all of this. From what you could deduce this was all real. But how?

Soon enough, you came to the entrance of the coliseum, the same one as where you had entered and at last, the world around you faded away, leaving nothing but the cool night surrounding you and a normal-looking Akira.

But you don't yet allow yourself to speak, instead, you let him help you back to your room through the window where you came out and he follows you inside. "Are you hurt at all?" He's the first to speak once you feel a little safer.

"No," you answer. "But... what was all of that?" you ask him.

Akira breathes in a deep sigh. "It was the materialization of your father's heart," he says. "This is what I meant when I kept telling you I was going to help you..." he trails off before lifting his eyes to meet yours. How you missed those mysterious gray eyes, but, that description did them no justice. "I know you told me to stay out of it... but I just couldn't," he says softly before stepping closer to you. "I was so worried about you all this time... it gives me a lot of relief to see that you're all right."

You can feel your chest get tight while your ears listen to the charming words coming from his lips. Every single one causes you to think more and more about your talk with Yusuke the day you first met. Before you can even more your own lips to speak, he moves forward once more and guides you over toward your bed. "You need to rest... tomorrow, your father will likely confess to everything he has done... perhaps to the police," he says, which immediately worries you.

You sit down on your bed, leaving the boy to tower over you even more, his half-lidded eyes staying on you while you voice your concern. "But... then what? I don't want to move again, I'm scared," you admit.

Akira leans down to you a little, placing his hands on your shoulders. "Don't you worry about it... I've already got everything worked out in your favor... you don't need to do anything," he says.

Once you were worried, but somehow when he assures, you, you find yourself able to calm down at last. "Okay," you answer him.

"Now, I'm going to go back and help the others, I'll see you soon, okay?" Akira asks you as he removes his hands from you and heads toward the window.

"Okay... thank you for everything, Akira," you say to him as he reopens the window.

"You can thank me when it's all over," he replies before leaving you to yourself.

You sigh once he’s gone, leaving your sheer curtains to blow in the nighttime breeze, almost reminding you of how empty it is. It’s almost somber, but somehow, you have faith in everything Akira said to you and you are able to rest easy that night, knowing that when morning rises, maybe things will return to normal.


	12. The End of the Storm

You had to admit to the shock of sitting there, eyes wide, intuition all out of sorts and brain not knowing what to do while your father cried and cried. In fact, you were almost completely sure that your wild adventure from the night before then was nothing but a fevered dream that your mind had conjured up to induce within you a false sense of hope. Even then, it felt as though at least you must be hallucinating. But you're sure that hallucinations don't last for several days, especially when you're getting enough sleep at night.

You never returned to Kosei. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and the entire week leading up to next Sunday all passed you by like you were dazed, floating aloft on the feather of some magical bird. You never saw your old house again. The terms of your custody were put into effect almost immediately once the one who was taking you in was deemed worthy of doing so.

Sunday morning, you awoke in Sojiro's home, fear at first coursing through your body from head to toe as you realize your surroundings are far from familiar. But you quickly remember your late-night train ride to Yongen-Jaya where all of your belongings were moved, courtesy of some movers hired by your new foster father.

It set in that at last you had returned to the place you felt most comfortable, and your transfer back to Shujin would be in place the day after. But stress immediately began to run over you like a freight train. You felt like the past few weeks of your life were utter bullshit. How were you meant to pass finals which, you reminded yourself, began on Wednesday? You just wanted to roll back over and go to sleep.

Your phone has been overflowing with messages throughout the week, but none would you answer since everything that was going on simply kept you unable to speak with anyone. Most were from Yusuke and Hifumi asking where you were, if you were okay and what was wrong. You looked between their two private chats after lifting your phone to look at it, trying to figure out which you should speak to first.

You feel a little closer to Yusuke so you decide to explain things to him first.

You: Hello, Yusuke.

You lie there and await his response, but soon deduce that he must not be awake yet, so you set aside your phone and get up to get yourself into some decent clothes. Once you do, you pocket your phone and head to the downstairs of Sojiro's home. It's eerily empty and you start to feel off until you remember that Sojiro is probably at Leblanc. You remember him telling you the coffee and curry shop was right around the corner from his house and decide perhaps you should go there to thank him.

Once you get on your shoes, you head out, following the increasingly familiar streets to where that hidden coffee shop is tucked away in an alley.

When you open the door, you hear the familiar jingle of the bell above the door, letting the employees know a customer has entered. But you're not exactly a customer of course. Sojiro is sitting behind the counter, reading a magazine with one hand when he notices you and looks up. "Oh, good morning, (L/n)," he says.

"Hello," you respond before awkwardly making your way toward the counter.

He had gone back to reading before seeing that you were there. The two of you shared an almost awkward look with one another before he broke eye contact. "Sorry I wasn't awake to welcome you in last night, you just arrived really late," he says. "You looking for Kurusu? He's upstairs sleeping. In fact, he should probably be getting up soon, would you mind going up to wake him? I'll get you both some breakfast while you're at it."

 

You tap your finger against the counter for a moment before looking up at Sojiro. "...thank you," you say to him.

"Huh...? What for?" It still seems he's on the subject of what he's said.

"For taking me in. I really appreciate it... and I'll try not to burden you," you tell him.

Sojiro breathes a sigh and looks at you with sympathetic eyes. "Listen, just don't stress over it, okay? I'm doing this because I wanted to help out and it was important to Kurusu, so that means I accept you and everything that comes along with that," he explains.

You nod your head. "I'll go wake him..." you say before pushing out your stool and hopping off so that you can head up the stairs to your left. You ascend them as quietly as you can so as not to wake him suddenly.

As you approach his bed, you can begin to see his sleeping face since he's asleep facing toward you. His glasses are set aside on the window sill with Morgana asleep by his feet. At first you just stand there, wondering what you should do and probably looking like some creep while doing so. But then you kneel down so you can see his face a little better which his mostly covered by hair that has shifted out of place during sleep. The warming outside rays shine gallantly over his pale skin and cause his curly hair to look silky. You cannot resist your urge any longer.

You reach your hand forward and push your fingers through those thick locks, causing him to let out a groggy noise almost immediately. It's soft like you imagined and though the noise he made has scared you, you don't remove your hand and simply start to comb your hand within those voluptuous tresses.

After a mere few seconds of this, Akira releases another groan and speaks softly, in almost a whisper as you continue. "That feels... relaxing..." Slowly, he begins to peel open his sleepy eyes before they look at you. "Mn... (F/n)?" Once he realizes it's you, he pulls from your grasp and sits up half-way from his laying position, waking Morgana as well before parting his lips to yawn. "When did you get here?" he asks a little more clearly.

Your cheeks flush a little as he's more than likely noticed your petting of his hair. "Um... do you mean to Yongen-Jaya or... here-- I guess?" you ask.

The ghost of a laugh rumbles briefly in his chest before he looks at you. "Both," he says.

"Well... I got to Yongen last night and... Leblanc just a few minutes ago," you answer.

Akira sits up fully before reaching toward the ceiling to stretch his body, his shirt crawling up his waist as it exposes a little bit of it to your glancing eyes. "Did Sojiro tell you to come up here?" he asks then stands up from his bed.

Now it's your turn to laugh a little as you stand up as well. "Yeah, but he's making curry for us so we should head downstairs," you tell him before turning to lead the way down.

"Hold on, hold on," his voice stops you and soon his arms do as well as he ensnares you within them, holding you to his chest in a warm embrace. He keeps you there for a long moment before pulling away and looking down at you. "I'm glad you're finally safe," he says before turning to grab his glasses and put them on.

You can't help but to smile at his cheeky-esque toward you. "Well... that's more thanks to you," you reply.

Akira's eyes light up, but somehow when he does that, you can just tell he's happy. "Come on, let's go downstairs," he says and with that, you both head to the main floor of the coffee shop, where the delectable smell of Sojiro's famous curry hits your nose immediately upon setting foot down there.

The two of you have breakfast together in the calmness of morning, your mind and his cleared of all stress as you allow the wonderful taste to wash over your tastebuds. But when you finish, at least part of it comes back to you. "So, I'll be back to Shujin tomorrow. Sojiro filled out all the paper work and everything for me," you say.

He nods his head as he sets aside his plate. "It'll be good to have you back," he says.

"Yeah... but there's also finals coming up... that's only in a few days, right?" you ask before your eyes drift down. "I'm so going to bomb every single one..." you groan and put your head down into your folded arms. Then, you feel your phone vibrate in your pocket, knowing it must be Yusuke and pull it out.

"You know, if you wanted, we could cram together. I'm honestly feeling a little worried myself..." he says which stops you from reading the text Yusuke had indeed sent you.

You were actually completely frozen from this, starting to think about those movie cliches where teens who like each other study with one another. But that couldn't happen with you and Akira, could it? Not that you would mind. "O-Oh um... well, I threw out all the things I could have used for study material so... I guess I'd have to use yours," you say.

"Even more of a reason to do it together," he says. "Anyway, what did you have planned for today?" he asks.

"Oh, well um..." you trail off. You want to hang out with him, but you don't want to sound desperate either. "I haven't exactly gotten that far yet," you say.

Finally, you are able to bring yourself to read that text.

Yusuke: Thank god. Where have you been?? Are you coming back to school soon? Hifumi's been accusing me of kidnapping you, we've been worried.

You let out a sigh as you're able to read and process the message he sent you now and it seems as though without your noticing, Akira has taken note of your rather crestfallen facial expression.

You: Well... to start, my father was arrested and I was taken into care by the same man who's taking care of Akira.

He answers more quickly than before, but before you can read it, Akira is talking again. "Well, did you want to do something?"

Without removing your eyes from the screen you reply, "sure, but what do you want to do?"

Yusuke: Wow, that's quite a lot for one week. How are you doing then? I take it you won't be back to Kosei any time soon.

"Now hold on. You sure you don't want to take a day from all the craziness and just rest?" Sojiro cuts in, causing you to look up.

"Oh... well..." you trail off. "I mean, it doesn't have to be anything stressful. Is there a park anywhere nearby?" you ask before glancing back to your phone to respond.

You: Most likely not... but that doesn't mean we can't still be friends.

Reading your own text upsets you because you know what saying that will mean. You'll talk less and less and likely never see one another again. You hated when that happened, because it had happened to you countless times already, and it was always the good ones who got away.

Yusuke: I absolutely agree. Tell you what, this week will be busy because we'll be preparing for finals, but Sunday, my sensei's artist exposition begins. If I got you and Akira free tickets, would you come? I'd love for you to see his art.

The suggestion brings some life back into your eyes and a little hope returns to you.

"There should be one around Shibuya actually, would you want to go there?" Akira asks.

You: I'd have to check and see if Akira would want to, but if not, I'll go for sure.

"Yeah, it sounds fun," you say before turning your body toward Akira's direction. "So, one of my friends from Kosei was wondering, if we got some free tickets from him, would you want to go to a famous artist's exposition? It's his sensei and he wants me to go on Sunday."

"Kurusu going to something having to do with fine arts? Hah, real likely," Sojiro butts in.

Akira shoots him what almost looks like a glare for a brief moment before shifting those eyes back to you. "Actually, I would love to go," he says. "Keep me up to date on the details. I'm going to get dressed so we can go soon, okay? Maybe we can stop at Big Bang Burger while we're out that way for lunch too."

You smile happily at him and nod your head. "Okay," you agree.

Within moments after that, he disappears upstairs, leaving you alone with Sojiro. "He sure does spoil you, doesn't he?" the man says suddenly.

By now, your smile begins to fade. He really does spoil you a lot and deep down, you really love it, he sure knows best when it comes to being friends.

Which is why... you feel you're not worthy of being his friend. Where he excells, you lag behind which is in almost every category. How can he put up with you? You seem to find yourself wondering.

"Yeah... I guess he does," you reply before your head cranes down toward your phone to answer Yusuke.

You: He says he'd like to go. See you then, Yusuke

"You know, I'm sorta glad you walked in that one day, kid. Ever since you've been around, Kurusu hasn't caused any trouble or anything, so that's good," Sojiro says. "And he seems to care about you as well."

You nod your head in agreement. "Yes... he really does, doesn't he..." you trail off.

Soon enough, Akira returns to the cafe floor with his hands stuffed into his pants pockets. "Well, are you ready to go?" he asks.

Putting away your phone and hopping off the stool, you reply, "yeah, I'm ready, let's head out."

The two of you take a short ride through the train toward Shibuya and find your way to the park which was shelled away by all the bustle and tall buildings. Shibuya is a big city, so it was no question as to why the place was so well-kept for the general public.

The both of you walk around for a bit before coming across a playground which you both decided to take up two swings before all of the screaming children could get to them first. The day is relatively sunny and the air within the day has a relaxing vibe to it. You were absorbing as much of it as you could, but having no medicine to keep you calm proves to make that difficult for you and you're completely certain that Akira has noticed.

Once he's finished shooing away a child trying to convince him to get off and let her have a turn, his head shifts in your direction which you take immediate notice of and look up at him. "Something bothering you today?" he asks.

"What makes you think so?" you ask him.

"Hm... well... normally I can get you to smile at least once when we're together but... I can't seem to find where you've hidden it today," he says in a poetic sort of way which causes you to avert your gaze once more, but for him to lean forwad to try and catch it once more, causing a bit of his hair to fall into his eyes.

"I ran out of medicine awhile ago... it's been hard keeping it together lately," you admit.

You see Akira's eyes get wide from the corner of your own. "Oh, why did you agree to come out today with me? I would have understood if you just wanted to hang out inside for the day," he says.

You shake your head in response to this. "No, I think I needed a little sunshine today, as much as my mood is off," you reply. "But there is something I have been wanting to address, I suppose... and it's been on my mind a lot and I guess not having the medicine is causing it to bother me more," you say.

"And that is?" he asks.

"...do you... see me as a good friend?" you ask him. "It's just... you've done so much for me— god, you've done so much for me. You've even put your life on the line, all for me. But... what have I done to deserve it?"

Akira's head tilts downward and as it does, you feel safe to look up since you won't be making eye-contact. "I think that everyone is deserving of a friend who would go through that for their happiness," he says.

"But then what about you? Aren't you deserving of that from me?" you ask.

He catches you by surprise when his head lifts again and his eyes lock with yours. You feel you're trapped now and can't bring yourself to look away. "You know... this probably isn't what you want to hear right now... you're probably searching for a little assurance... but I think at the moment, I just can't give it to you," he says and your heart sinks into your stomach. You knew it, you knew all along you've simply been leeching off of Akira and all of the wonderful things he's done for you. "I need to get back to you on that... but I promise that when I answer, it will most certainly be exactly what you want to hear," he says.

You immediately shake your head and break the eye-contact with him. "No, it's okay... I don't want you to tell me what I want to hear... I want you to tell me how you feel about me," you say. But when you do, your cheeks grow warm and that sinking feeling in your chest and stomach grows more violent and you quickly look at him again. "W-Wait, that came out wrong!" you scramble to say.

When this happens, you're able to hear that laugh of his which you feel you haven't had the blessing in a long time. "Oh, (F/n), I've missed you," he says, avoiding the subject completely. But you don't seem to mind it since you don't need to be reminded of the answer you were given. "Come on, why don't we head out and grab lunch now. I can take you home after that... unless you want to hang out at Leblanc for a little while," he says.

You're a little reluctant after the conversation which took place, but you decide that since you don't have much else to do at Sojiro's house, it would be more favorable to hang out with Akira more instead.

So, after lunch, the two of you head over to Leblanc in Yongen-Jaya. From there, he leads you back to his room where the both of you end up on his couch watching a movie you had picked out from his small selection. His arm was wrapped around the back of the couch, resting behind your head and duly noted it. You ended up going through three movies which carried you into nighttime.

You supposed it could have been his enticing smell or the warmth from his body, but some part of him was relaxing you, and with your grogginess, somehow you just let yourself fall asleep with your head rested against his chest since it couldn't fall upon his shoulder. It was as though the simple beating of his heart had lulled you to sleep (no matter how fast it was racing with you laying on him like that). The experience was hypnotic.

Which likely explained the reason you had no recollection of it by the time morning came upon you, making it even more confusing as to why you would have woken up entangled in the body of the one sleeping soundly beside you.


	13. Darwin’s Theory (13)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! Lots has happened since the last chapter, including that my poor little brother broke his arm right in half. I’ve been doing my best to make him as comfortable as possible but I know how bad he’s hurting. Anyway, I hope this much-anticipated chapter is satisfactory for you all, I love making you all happy ^-^

(Hello everyone ^-^ I just wanted to say that I hope you're all having a wonderful day— or night, whenever you're reading this that's full of happiness, smiles and self-love. And even if you're not, I'm here to try and at least get one smile from you today, because the world is so much brighter when you do ❤️ ^-^ so please, please, please enjoy this chapter)

The smell of rich coffee beans envelops your nose, a soft breath exhaling in your ears and tickling you each time it hits which it does so in patterns. Your body is swathed in a warmth that words could not describe, holding the threads of your being in comfort, slowly unraveling you as this comfort keeps your eyes closed.

You're mindless in the instant, holding on with each tendril to this feeling, regardless of how it is being presented. But the light of day floods over you as your eyes peel open and the sound of gentle breaths in your ear is capsized by an ocean of blaring noises which seems to originate from your phone. Before you can register what's going on, the form resting beside you stirs and writhes with you ensnared in its grasp, from which you can deduce all that warmth was coming.

Over that startling sound, you can somehow manage to pick up soft moaning and groaning which plays in sync with those movements beside you. "Mh... turn it off..."

Your own body startles as it hears this voice speak, realizing it's coming from right beside you and that it too is holding onto you. Now you're starting to remember that you never went home the night before which can only mean one thing: you've just slept in the arms of Akira Kurusu.

You feel your chest go into a minor cardiac arrest before scrambling to sit up and find your phone. "S-Sorry! Sorry!" you stammer as your hands shuffle through the blankets over you and the sweater you'd tossed onto the floor before falling asleep last night. Finally you find the damn thing and fumble with it in your hands to hit the stop button.

You look back and see that with all your ragged, panicked movement, you'd fully woken Akira from his slumber and destroyed any amount of comfort he was in. A wave of guilt washes over you in that very instant as you see his almost pained eyes looking at you. "Sorry..." you say for the third time.

His stomach lifts beneath the blankets before deflating as he releases a sigh. "It's okay... we need to get ready for school anyway," he says to you before sitting up and getting off of the couch. "How did you sleep?" he asks.

"Um..." you trail off, beginning to consider how your sleep actually went. "I slept well, actually," you answer finally. "Anyway, I should get to Sojiro's so I can get dressed."

"I'll see you at the train station then," Akira says as he begins sliding off his shirt.

Quickly you jerk your head to the side so you don't see anything. "W-Wait, what?" you ask, forgetting where you live.

"We'll be taking the train together, right?" he asks.

"O-Oh... yeah."

"Then I'll see you there."

You start making your way toward the stairs hastily. "Right, yeah, see you," you stammer once more then head down the stairs. That must've been the fastest you'd ever descended a flight of stairs in your life, let alone rushed to Sojiro's.

When you arrive at the train station— which is a convenient one minute walk from home now— you find that it's already begun boarding its passengers, meaning you've most certainly already missed your chance at getting a place to sit, let alone standing near Akira. When you get on, you budge your way through people to find a place to comfortably stand without smelling someone's armpit or being face-first in their chest. Eventually, you're shoved off to the side by some annoyed people and end up stumbling into someone who's sitting down, their face planting into your stomach. Face red with embarrassment, you quickly try to back up (with really no avail at all), only to see the face you'd bumped into had been Akira's. "Oh! Sorry! I got pushed," you say to him.

With a slight laugh, the boy adjusts his now crooked glasses and looks up at you from where his nose is nearly against your stomach again. "It's fine. It's always really crowded on the train," he replies, his smile staying plastered to his lips.

You feel your face begin to flush and immediately avert your eyes from his. "Yeah, I know... I almost forgot we'd be riding the morning commute together now," you answer. You're feeling the conversation begin to lose taste and nervous, you do something bold to try and save it. "So, about that studying thing..." you trail off, remembering that finals are right around the corner.

"Oh, yeah. Did you want to do that tonight? There's not much time left so we'll have to cram," he says to which you nod your head.

"I have nothing better to do so... I'll head over to Leblanc around evening, is that okay?" you ask.

Soon, the both of you arrive at school, and by this point you're rather eager to see Ann again, not only that, but you'd like to formally meet this blonde boy who had helped save you. You and Akira head to the courtyard upon entering school as per usual and he leads you to where they all hung out.

"Hey, there she is! You're finally back," Ann says excitedly.

You allow yourself to smile just a little at her warm welcome. "It's good to be back... but I couldn't have without your help, all of you, thank you for helping me," you say. "And... I don't think I ever got your name," you say to the blonde boy.

"Ah, I'm Sakamoto Ryuji, but you can just call me Ryuji," he says.

Then, Morgana pokes his head out of Akira's bag and looks at you. "If it hadn't been for Akira, it probably couldn't have been possible," he says.

The sound of the cat talking causes your heart to jump and you flinch back in astonishment. "M-Morgana!? What are you doing at school? A-And... you're talking?" you ask.

"Yeah, after you visit the Meta, you start to hear his blabbering mouth," Ryuji says.

"He gets lonely at home by himself," Akira adds, sending you an innocent pair of stormy eyes.

"Well... anyway, I wanted to talk about the whole thing with my dad, now that you're all here," you say. "How is it all possible? That strange world we went to... and..." you trail off and lower your voice a little. "Are you guys really the Phantom Thieves of Hearts?" you ask.

"That's us," Ann replies.

Morgana turns his head from Ann and toward you once more. "Allow me to explain the Meta. Basically it's another reality created by the desires and twisted cognitions of those around us. Our job is to change those cognitions and make the world a better place," he explains.

You put your hand on your chin for a moment to think. "And... what about those giant monsters? The ones that came from your bodies," you ask.

"Our personas," Akira replies. "They are the rebellious spirits inside of us, our true inner voice, if you will," he explains. "It's a powerful asset to fighting the enemies of that world."

You nod, trying to wrap your head around all these strange nonsensical things. "I guess I understand it... my guess is you don't want me saying anything about it, right?" you ask.

"Uh, yeah. If you could?" Ryuji says, pulling an urgent face.

Once everything's been clarified for you, it's almost time for you to go to class and thus you decide to part ways with everyone a little early so you can get there in time. It seems as though the weather is finally letting up. And with it meant the detriments of th summer heat. You wish the school would hand out their summer uniforms a week earlier because in truth, it was far too hot to function.

That day had grown increasingly unbearable for you. On top of not having any medicine to keep you stable, the heat simply made you feel like you were going to pass out. While on your way to all of your classes, you pass by the same old bullshit as you did every other day. But this time you notice something that you think you may have before but simply brushed it off: couples were kissing. For some reason, it gives you a bit of jealousy too.

You'd only ever had the pleasure of receiving a kiss one time and it had been with the boy you believed you loved. You wonder what had come over him that time.

You believe you have fallen victim to the unjust vulture that was Natural Selection. You weren't like those other girls who you kept seeing with their male (or female because pride month 💕) counterparts. You didn't have a slim figure or any extraordinary features which stood out. In fact, you felt ordinary. Like you were just one in the crowd and to see you, one would have to weed through thousands of others.

It was nothing significant though, a simple observation you had made which wouldn't take up more than a few minutes of your mind's thoughts before moving on to other, more important things.

You sit with Akira at lunch that day and it stays relatively quiet between you two, which you enjoy since talking too much would probably cause you to have a heat stroke. Perhaps Akira understands that as well and even resonates with the feeling.

When you both return to Yongen-Jaya after school that day, you meet the boy along the entrance way to the street which branches off to both Leblanc and Sojiro's house. "I'll walk you home," he says when he meets you there and happily you agree to it.

It's always refreshing for you to see him after a long day of all the day's bullshit.

"How was your day?" he asks you while walking.

You sigh softly in response to his question. You know it wasn't great, but it wasn't all that bad either. But your brain decides to just jump to its default response when asked this. "It was good," you say.

Akira tilts his head at you. "I know you better than that, are you sure it was good?" he asks.

Instead of spouting a few of the things you wished to say, you give him a confused look and nod your head. "Am I not allowed to have a good day?" you ask half-jokingly.

"Oh, no, no, that's definitely not what I meant," he says as the two of you approach Sojiro's front door. "I just meant that I know you've been going through a lot lately... and I wanted to make sure that school isn't proving too much for you right now," he adds in a gentle tone.

But you shake your head to brush away his concern. "I'm okay, don't worry so much for me," you tell him. "I'll see you later tonight."

After patting you on the head, the both of you part ways and you enter the house. As you begin taking off your shoes and heading to your room, you hear a noise crash from the kitchen which causes your whole body to jerk. You drop your bag and press yourself against a wall, breath heaving as your heart races with it, clearly winning.

As far as you knew, nobody lived here except Sojiro which meant that someone must have broken in. "Dammit!" you hear a feminine voice hiss after which your hear shuffling.

Your eyes dart around the room as you try to search for something to use to defend yourself with. The best thing you can find is a broom leaning against the wall in the corner. You sneak your way over to grab it before your feet crept across the floor toward the kitchen. Over the shuffling noises, you hear metal clashing and upon peaking around the corner, you see a little girl with long orange hair and a pair of big headphones draped around her neck as she tries to put away some feller cooking utensils.

Now you're really confused. You supposed maybe you hadn't been there long enough, but you're sure Sojiro never mentioned anything about having a daughter. Most of all, she didn't even come close to resembling him in the slightest. But she looks harmless so there's no way she could have been an intruder.

"Um... hello?" you ask and slowly the younger girl turns her head.

Upon seeing your face, a look of horror falls upon her own before she lets out an ear-piercing shriek. She drops everything she was doing and makes a beeline for the stairs. Within moments after doing so, you hear a door slam from upstairs.

The first thing to cross your mind is that you're probably going to force yourself to pick up the mess she left on the floor. But before you do that, you decide to go see where this strange girl went.

You follow her tracks up the stairs and search for a room which isn't hard to find. There's caution tape and a "keep out" sign posted there. You have to assume by her reaction that she was in there and you knock on the door. "Hello?" you ask. But you receive no answer. You stand there for an awkward moment before allowing yourself to knock again. "Hello...? I'm really sorry about before, I didn't mean to scare you," you say.

Maybe she hadn't gone in there? You had yet again not recieved a response, however, this door did not fit the bill of Sojiro's bedroom. It made sense that it must belong to that little girl. Maybe he's fostering more than one? Akira, you and this girl... he must be more kind than he appears to be. "I um... I'm being fostered by Sojiro, you must be too, right? I wanted to introduce myself," you say.

"Can't you read?" a voice— which you can only match to the girl's— says back finally.

You look up from where your ear is pressed against the door and read the "keep out" sign once more. You don't like being a bother to people, so what she says causes a pang of guilt to wash through your chest. "Right... I'm sorry. Maybe another time," you reply and step away from the door, taking one last glance at it before heading to your room.

You stay in there for awhile, your mind sometimes wandering to that girl you found but never lingering for more than a few seconds.

Finally the time comes where Akira texts you, asking you to come over so you both can study. When you agree, you lug your school bag along with you and— having dressed into some more appropriate clothing for the occasion— head out toward Lablanc.

Upon setting foot inside, there are a few customers sitting in the booths and Sojiro standing behind the front counter. "Hey, (L/n). Kurusu's upstairs. I'll be closing up soon so you'll have the cafe to yourselves. Just don't make a mess or cause trouble, okay?" he warns you.

"You have my word, Sojiro," you answer. You want to ask about that girl you saw at his house before going up to greet the boy, but you decide that with those people around, perhaps now isn't the best time.

So, walking past the counter, you head up to the attic where Akira is already sorting through his bag while you can see Morgana toastering on the window sill behind him. But when they both hear you walk upstairs, their attention shifts your way. "Hey, (F/n)," Morgana speaks up before Akira has a chance to greet you.

"Hi, guys," you answer and tread your way over to the bed, timidly inviting yourself to sit cross-legged on the bed beside him, setting down your bag next to you. 

"So, what do you want to start with," Akira asks you.

You begin with the subjects you both need the most studying for which is helpful since it seems whatever one of you is bad at, the other is rather good at. Akira didn't need as much help as you. You tend to pay less attention in class than him it seems since he's better at most things than you. The whole time you can't help but think how perfect he is. He's smart, gentle, caring and so selfless, not to mention very attractive. But in the end, all these qualities sadden you because you know you could never live up to someone so great.

You try not to show it though and do a pretty good job of it. You're not sure how much time has passed since you arrived but you're feeling sleepy. Even Akira's starting to rub his eyes every so often.

Finally he lets out a groan and throws himself back onto the bed, arms above his head. "Ugh... I think it's time for some coffee," he says, pausing to bask in the comfort of his bed. He then sits up and starts to head for the stairs. "Coming?" he asks.

"Oh, yeah," you respond and get up to follow him downstairs. It's strange to see the cafe without Sojiro being there. The boy steps behind the counter, and starts to get some hot water ready before getting out some coffee beans.

"What kind do you want?" he asks.

"Oh, uh, I don't really drink coffee," you reply but he gives you a shocked look.

"What?" he asks in disbelief. "Why not?"

"Well... I don't know, I guess it never really appealed to me," you answer.

"Hm, well..." he trails off. "Would you try some of my coffee?" he asks, giving you the most pleading eyes.

You can't find yourself in a defiable position and decide to give in. You suppose giving it a try couldn't hurt and agree over your tiredness to let him pour you a cup. It's almost the same scent as him so it delights your nose when it starts brewing.

"This is my favorite kind... Sojiro taught me how to make it and I've been in love ever since," Akira explains. Once finished, he pours a cup for both of you and joins you on the other side of the counter.

You're about to bring the cup to your lips until the raven quickly stops you. "Wait, it's hot, I don't want you to burn yourself," he says and you quickly (without spilling of course) place the cup back onto the counter. "Here..." he says before leaning toward your cup and starting to gently blow on it. "Sojiro says it's best when it's piping hot but..." Akira trails off and looks at you. "I assume your tongue must be sensitive."

The way he speaks causes your heart and stomach to flutter. You know you're not good enough for him but you can't seem to stop your body from feeling this way. After talking, Akira leans forward to blow on your coffee again, leaving your thoughts to press onward.

"Thank you, Akira... you're always so thoughtful," you say.

He lifts his head and sends you that gentle gleam in his eyes which you know is his smile trying to break through. "It should be cooled off now, go ahead and try it," he says.

You brace your tastebuds for impact as you lift the steaming cup once more and place it to your lips. But when the liquid enters your mouth, it really isn't as bad as you thought it would be, in fact, it's probably even better. "Oh... wow this is good."

Finally you get to see his smile. "Yes, victory," he says. “Would you like me to walk you home after this? You look really tired and it will be hard to focus like this,” he asks.

“Oh, are you sure? It’s pretty dark out,” you say.

“That’s exactly why I want to... I know it isn’t far, but I don’t want you to get hurt,” Akira answers.

“Well... I suppose it would be fine,” you reply.

You don't speak again as you start to finish up that cup which you feel is the perfect temperature and Akira watches you intently, happiness and even a little pride boiling in him that you really like something he made that previously you hadn't.

"(F/n), do you remember your question from yesterday?" he asks.

His question catches you off guard and you look over at him after placing down the cup. "Huh...? Question...?" you ask.

"When you asked what I thought of you," he says. "I think I have an answer."

Your heart sinks into your toes when you hear this as it has completely knocked you out of your good mood and fear is now coursing through your entire body and you're quite sure adrenaline is causing your heart to race, probably priming you for when you have to rush out the door in a bout of tears.

"Oh... well um... are you going to answer?" you ask.

Akira turned his body atop his stool so he could look full on at you and such a bold gesture had to mean he was expecting you to do the same, but you didn’t know if you could look him in the eyes.

“Would you... turn this way so that I can look at you?” he asks.

Now that he’s verbally asking, you force yourself to turn toward him and swallow hard to hide your nervousness.

“When I... first came to Shujin, I didn’t expect to meet someone like you,” he begins. “But... when you still talked to me and stuck around me, even after hearing all the rumors about me, I knew that you would be someone different... someone worth my time,” he says. “You’re always so genuine and kind to me, you say what you mean, and I like that about you, it’s an important quality to have. Though you can be reserved and quiet at times, I know that it means you’re hurting and that I need to bring back your happiness, it gives me something to push for.”

His eyes trail down from yours. “I appreciate all of that, I appreciate you. It helped me when I felt sad or... when I heard the whispers of my classmates saying awful things about me. I hate to admit it... but sometimes it hurts and gets difficult to ignore. But you were always there as my reassurance that I’m okay.” Suddenly you notice tears beginning to roll off of the young man’s cheeks and you don’t think you’ve ever seen him cry before. It hurts you physically to see tears coming from those brilliant eyes that you’d grown to love so much.

“I-I guess what I’m trying to say is... would you...” he trails off before lifting those teary eyes again, his own face all red just as yours was. But then his face suddenly pales again. “Wha—? You’re crying, I didn’t mean to make you cry too,” he says.

You supposed you hadn’t realized it before but he was right, there were salty tears streaming down your face. Your mind hadn’t yet processed it, but these were things that you truly needed to hear from someone. They were so gentle and kind and made you feel like you weren’t worthless. It was meaningful. Why had nobody cared enough before now to tell you that you weren’t nothing as you had always felt you were.

“A-Akira...” you stammer softly. “Th-Thank you,” you say through a sob. “No one’s ever said anything like this before a-and I truly thought you were going to tell me how terrible I was and I just wanted you to know th-that I feel the same way,” you say. “It’s a struggle for me just to get out of bed every morning but... when I get to see you, it seems much more manageable because you make my worries go away somehow,” you explain.

Through his tears, the raven cracks a smile and begins to even laugh. “Wow, I... I never would have thought you’d feel the same way... I thought maybe you considered me to be too pushy or a bother whenever you wanted to be left alone,” he says. “But I’m glad that’s not the case,” he adds. You both cease your talking for a moment and at last the boy’s face reddens once more. “I have been nervous to tell you for awhile now, which is completely unlike me... but... when I look at you, I can’t help but get these feelings...” His voice has dulled to almost a whisper by now, but it’s calming and when he says this, you can’t help but blush deeper than before. “And to know that you’ve had them as well...” he trails off. “The feeling from before seems so far gone to me that... I can’t help but wonder... what it might be like... if we...” His voice seems to get softer and softer somehow each time he trails off and yet, his face is getting closer to yours so it seems as though it’s not getting any quieter at all. And from his words and his current body language, you know exactly what he means.

But this time, you’re prepared for it. This time, you’re the one to finish closing the gap and kissing him once again is a feeling that your lips are familiar with but yet all at once, it feels so foreign to you. You think you understand now what he was saying before he leaned into you and now your lips are locked in a smooth dance. The feeling sets your body ablaze like a live wire, unable to describe what it’s doing to you. All you know is that it makes you want him to stay close to you forever. Your nerves cherish every second that his soft lips glide against yours and tingle when his thumb brushes your cheek.

This felt complete to you, like you had truly fulfilled something and it was unlike anything you had ever felt before. Though your tongues had yet to be involved, you still feel you can taste his lips upon yours and when his tongue asks your lips kindly for an invitation inside, you foresee no other choice but to let it in.

The kiss remains soft even though the warmth of your tongues is being shared between the both of you. It’s nice, everything you could have asked for and you wouldn’t have it any other way. When you both force yourselves to break away, you’re looking into the eyes of one another. “...you really do taste as sweet as I had imagined...” he almost whispers to you. “I think I could do that all day if no one stopped me,” he adds. “But... it’s getting late and I would hate for you to lose sleep by staying up... as much as I would hate for you to leave, I don’t think Sojiro would like it if you stayed another night... he was quite upset this morning...”

You nod your head in understanding, knowing that you will have to say goodbye for now. “But hey, why don’t we meet after school and we could go get some dinner, it only seems right that I take you on a proper date. Then afterward we can come back to the cafe and resume studying,” Akira says.

“I would like that very much, Akira...” you answer.

He then slides off the stool and offers his hand to you. “Here, give me your hand,” he says and when you do, he laces your fingers with his. “...it fits so perfectly within mine...” he murmurs softly before allowing you to get off the stool.

Within the dead of night, hand in hand, Akira returns you to your proper place at home, kissing your cheek goodbye before parting with you, happiness blooming within both of you even as the distance between you grows further and further.


	14. An Update

Hey guys! Deep in the dead of night, I’m back! I’ve been a little busy working on an actual book of mine and work and over all, haven’t had much motivation for this one. But here and now, I’m claiming to be getting back into motion! I know I left you guys on quite the little cliff-hanger there, but the story is not finished yet! Stay tuned!


	15. The Blossoms of Spring (14)

You could swear when your eyes fluttered open the next morning, it was like the sound of the birds chirping was far less annoying than you could remember. The bothersome glow of the sun through your window became a warming embrace and the blare of your alarm was like the excitement of a child on Christmas morning.

You cannot express enough how happy you are to be awake that morning. But there is even a part of you that regrets it, like you are fearing what you experienced was nothing more than a dream. You hoped not because the things you felt were far too real, and you didn't know if you could manage such a thing again if it hadn't been real.

You're exhausted from studying so late, at least that part you remember, but still you will have to drag your body out of bed and force it to school. As dreary as it all once sounded, with Akira adorning any part of what the day had in store for you, it all doesn't seem as bad anymore. Thinking of him makes your chest swell. It's like you don't even need those pesky capsules anymore because simply the thought of that boy gets you giddy inside.

While breezing through your routine of dressing and brushing your hair and teeth, you find yourself not thinking about how much time is left before you have to get out the door or if you forgot to do anything before making yourself toast. For once, you're not thinking of any of those things, you're just thinking of Akira.

When you leave Sojiro's house, you get on the train to get to school, knowing Akira must be among the hundreds of other people on that train. But as your morning goes on... you feel you should have seen him by now. You head to the normal spot in the courtyard, waiting for the others to show up. Eventually, Ann and Ryuji make their appearance... but no Akira. Suddenly all the happiness you once had turns to worry all at once and it hits you hard.

"Hey um, have either of you seen Akira this morning?" you ask while Ann and Ryuji are in the middle of a conversation.

"No, I haven't seen him yet. Aren't you two livin' together now? Wouldn't you know?" Ryuji asks.

You shake your head. "It's not like that... we're under the same guardian but... well, I don't live with him," you explain.

Now your worry starts to feel a bit more justified. If even they hadn't seen him, where could he be? Was he avoiding you? What if he realized his decision was a mistake?

"Right, right," Ryuji replies. "So, you two smooched yet?"

Ann back-hands the blonde in the chest with an annoyed expression. "Ryuji, you don't ask stuff like that!" she exclaims. "Don't listen to him, (F/n), he's a raging idiot."

Regardless of his intentions, it still makes you blush. That morning, you were confident you could shout from the rooftops the things you were feeling. But now, you were scared. You were scared of being wrong.

"You're really something else, Ryuji..." you say in joke. "Really... I don't know what we are right now." You say.

"Oh no, did something happen yesterday? Is that why he's not here?" Ann asks worriedly.

"He's having morning sickness," Ryuji buts in cheekily to which he receives another back-hand to the chest, this time harder, and you know because he grunts from it.

"No, no, it's not that," you say. But really, your heart is scared you're lying, or scared you're just wrong. "Well... I don't really know, it's complicated," you correct yourself. You guess you really can't figure out an answer to this mystery unless you text him and find out. You really hope he won't ignore you though.

You go back and forth with your keyboard and backspace, trying to formulate something that won't sound selfish like "things are okay between us, right?" Or things that sound too oblivious.

Your mind finally decides on one thing, but even then you're scared of the response.

You: Hey, are you okay? How come you're not at school? I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable

You don't hear from him right away, which makes you nervous.

By the time you'd sent out the message though, it had been time to move on with your day. It was spent weaving between classes, checking your phone every ten minutes and of course any time it vibrated (which to your dismay was always a notification for some game or other app on your phone).

By the time lunch hits, you're starting to actually panic. There's no Akira to sit with so you hide in the bathroom, letting your paced breaths consume you and your high blood pressure flood your veins. It's not difficult to tell you're having a panic attack, and it's bad because you keep leaning over the toilet in the stall you've tucked yourself away in like you're about to vomit. Thankfully you don't, but it's still an awful feeling to sit with for the next twenty minutes.

That's when your phone vibrates. You pick it up, knowing it's probably another app notification, but you still have to check anyway. But you were wrong. It's actually a text from Akira. Your chest lights up with happiness for a split second before returning to the dread you know you might face once you open that message. You take a moment to mentally prepare yourself, even cringing as you coax your thumb to click his contact.

Akira: Good morning, beautiful— or, haha, I should say afternoon by now~ I'm sorry I'm not at school today. I wasn't feeling good this morning. It was hard to convince Sojiro, but he let me stay home since I've got a fever. I'm not at my best, but I would still love to see you today once you're done with school.

Reading the message immediately warms your heart. You weren't expecting such a sincere and clearly well-thought-out response. It almost brings tears to your once hopeless eyes. You sit there, reading the message over and over again since you're not even sure yet how to reply. But all of a sudden, your fingers just do the talking for you.

You: Thank god, I was really worried you were ignoring me because things were awkward between us. But I'm really glad that's not the case! I would be happy to come by after school. I hope you feel better soon <3

Yes, you sent him a heart. But only because you weren't thinking as you were typing. Now that it was sent, you kept reading it over, wishing there was a way to delete or at least edit your messages without the recipient knowing it ever existed. But part of you is actually quite happy in knowing that the message is final.

Akira: What?? Ignore you?? Never. Seeing a text from you this morning put a smile on my face, and to know you're worried for me makes me even happier. Anyway, I'm glad you're coming, but unfortunately that means I'll have to postpone our date. I hope you aren't too disappointed.

Before you know it, you're smiling like an idiot. Where had this boy been your entire life? You loved everything about him. You had yet to admit it out loud, but you really, really loved him.

You: Of course not, I still get to see you in the end, don't I? I guess that makes me pretty lucky.

Akira: Ah, you're such an angel. The way you flirt is absolutely adorable. I'm feeling better already.

You're not sure how much more of this you can take. Your heart is pounding so loud you can feel it in your ears and your face is on fire. But you can't bring yourself to stop typing away. To have him point out your attempts at being conspicuous was really embarrassing!

You: You're a lot more talkative over text than you are in person, you know that?

Akira: I could say the same for you, perhaps a bit more so than myself. But what can I say? Laying eyes on you leaves me speechless~

You: Okay, okay, now you're just being corny

Akira: Well then, butter me up, because I'm just getting started <3

You: I will block this number

Akira: (F/n)! You wouldn't dare!

You glance up at the clock taunting you at the very top of your screen, warning you that your lunch hour is nearly over and you sigh as disappointment floods its way in.

You: Of course not, I was only joking. Anyway, lunch is almost over so I'll have to go for now but I will see you after school, okay?

Akira: I'll be waiting patiently until then~

That feeling of euphoria you had as soon as you woke up that morning suddenly returns. The sludge of voices of students plaguing you in the hallways became gentle white noise narrating the warm beating of your heart. And every time you thought of what he texted you, your chest would swell and your stomach felt like it was being stirred like fresh cake batter— in a good way, of course!

The classes after lunch were longer than you felt they ever were before. You never had things to really look forward to after school, at least none that made you as excited as you were. You couldn't stop your lips from smiling, your stomach from fluttering, your heart from throbbing and you didn't care if it was drawing attention to you, you were too happy to care.

You were still in a daze, like a dancer gracefully moving her body with dainty footsteps to the train. You felt free like that dancer, like it didn't matter where you went or how long it took, you would eventually make it to the one who longed to see you as much as you longed to see him and that was enough to keep you floating on air.

Passing by Leblanc without stopping in was a challenge all by itself, but you wanted to drop off your bag and get into something a little more comfortable before you went to visit Akira. But when you did, there was that little orange-haired girl again, digging through the kitchen. Presumably trying to find something to eat. You really wanted to meet her since the two of you shared a house, but you figure it's probably best not to start anything. So you whisk your way by the kitchen and make it to your room to change.

When you arrive at Leblanc at last, you send a quick "hello" in Sojiro's direction before making a beeline for the stairs. When you make it to the top, you see Morgana all curled up in the window sill like usual and Akira laying down with his eyes closed. You can't be sure if he's asleep though. You make your way over before kneeling down to gently start messing with Akira's hair.

It relaxes him almost immediately and a little smile creases his lips. He says nothing for a little bit, leaving you to believe he must be sleeping. "How was school...?" he finally asks, almost startling you.

His voice breaks your heart a little. He's all stuffed up and now that you were starting to realize it, there were used tissues scattered about too. "It was okay... it would have been better with you there though," you answer him softly, trying to keep him relaxed. You're still stroking his hair too.

"Mm... if you keep doing that, I'll fall asleep." He gives a cute little sniffle, but barely a sound comes from it from how stuffed he is. Akira opens his eyes to look at you and smiles once more. "You don't care that I'm sick, do you?" he asks.

"Wha...? Of course I do, what makes you say that?" you ask, wondering where this came from so suddenly. But he laughs, making you relieved.

"I didn't mean it like that," he says, leaving you confused as to what he did mean. It doesn't take long for him to show you though. His arms reach forward and wrap around you and you feel him pull on you, coaxing you into the bed with him. Akira ensnares you within his sheets, arms and legs until you're warm. Most of the heat is coming from him. "Sorry if it's hot... I've had the chills all day though, so I'm cold..."

You can't possibly bring yourself to pull away with a reason like that. You wanted him to be happy in his time of sickness. You couldn't afford to get sick too though, so you hoped that whatever it was he had contracted was not contagious.

With the air left open to conversation, your mind drifts off to the girl you kept seeing at Sojiro's house and wonder if Akira knows anything about her.

"Hey, Akira...?" you ask, to which he answers with a lax, "hm...?" You pause for a moment. "Do you know if Sojiro is fostering anyone else aside from us?"

Akira opens his eyes (since he'd closed them again). The air hangs silent between you two, and you can't see his face because of how you're laying, so you have no idea if his silence is due to shock or dread or some other emotion in between. "Not that I know of... what makes you ask that?"

"Well... it's just, today is the second time I have seen a girl with long, orange hair in his house. She seems almost as timid as a feral cat, it's really something," you explain. "I know I probably should just ask... but I mean... he doesn't really have to tell me..."

"Hm... that's really curious. Has she told you her name?" Akira asks.

"I've barely gotten any words from her. When I tried talking to her, she was very against having anything to do with me. She even seemed frightened and ran when she saw me for the first time," you say.

You felt Akira's lips gently touch the top of your head. "I see... it's a tough situation, but it can't hurt to ask. After all, you do live with her, so if she won't talk, I suppose Sojiro has some explaining to do." A slight chuckle rumbled in him for a moment before you were both stopped by the sound of your phone ringing.

If you were a normal person, you'd have ignored it and soaked up your quality time with Akira, but you didn't have very many contacts, which meant for someone to be calling, it had to be important. So, you pull out your phone... only to see that the number-- no-- the contact on the top reads... "mom".

You feel tears well up in your eyes and your hands even begin to shake as you reach for the answer button and practically spring out of bed. "S-Sorry I have to take this," you say quickly and finally answer. "Hello...?" you say with fear in your voice.

You notice Akira sit up from your peripheral vision with a concerned look on his face, but you can't bring yourself to bother with paying attention to it for more than a few moments because the voice of your mother replies to you.

"(F/n)... I... hi."

You're frozen and filled with emotions of many sorts, all of them ravaging you at once. You stay quiet, giving her no indication that you're still listening. With so many emotions flowing within, still, it seems like the most prominent to you is anger.

You're never angry, in fact, it's hard to catch you ever snapping at anyone in a fit of rage... but something about this whole thing was making you utterly livid.

"...Why did you call this number..."

You don't know how or why you said it, but it left your lips faster than you could even think about the consequences. An air of silence scrapes like fingernails on chalk against the back of your neck, and you shudder, waiting for the beast to strike you down.

"(F/n), please wait, don't get upset," your mother cautions you.

"You don't have a right to say that to me." You can feel that rage boil within you each time you say something fueled by it, like it thrives each time you draw upon it. "Not after what you did..."

Silence hangs between the lines once more before you hear a sob from your mother's end. It breaks your heart. Your mother had always done her best to be there provide and be there for you. And you had made her sad. But you wouldn't allow yourself to be so easily detoured from speaking your mind. One simple choice she made had ruined your life and stole away your chances of ever having a normal mother again.

By now, you'd completely forgotten that Akira was still in the room with you, your mind had jaded his presence. "I'm begging you..." she says, her voice barely audible to you. "Listen... the doctors put me in a rehabilitation center and they said I could call you. I just... I can't express enough how sorry I am. I was so worried about you, are you with your father? Is everything okay?"

You swallow what feels like a boulder in your throat. "Dad's in jail... I'm being fostered by a friend now," you tell her.

You hear a sniffle before another sob. "(F/n), please forgive me... I was stupid and I'm trying so hard to get help, but I need you to be here for me."

You take a deep breath in, knowing that if you hadn't you might start to cry. You roll your lips, feeling them start to pry at your eyelids. "I need to go, mom..." With that, you hang up, your hand covering your mouth as you stare at the floor and contemplate the phone call.

When it all finally hits you, that's when you start to cry, and it's not just any kind of cry, it's full on, ugly crying, sobbing, hiccuping and all. Even as sickly as he was though, Akira still mustered up the strength to get out of bed and hold you tightly in his arms, encasing you in a cocoon, at least that's how it feels.

"S-Sorry," you manage through your mess. But he hushes you still, his fingers burrowing their way into your hair as he clutches you closer.

You try to absorb the comfort he's offering you, but you can't seem to find it within yourself to fully feel relaxed in his arms. It's like there's a distance this sadness you're feeling has created between you both that he can't seem to reach you from.

It hurts.

Because even though he's right there in front of you, you feel so far away from him that your loneliness is keeping your tears from drying.

"Do you want to talk about this...?" he asks you blatantly.

Your lip quivers. "...No..." you finally say. "I'm sorry but... I think I really need to go home." You persistently try to break away from him after that, like a skiddish cat attempting to escape the arms of a human much larger than it.

"(F/n), wait," he says and allows distance between you enough so he can look at your moistened face. "I don't want you to go home and be sad by yourself... or to have any kind of panic attacks when I'm not there to comfort you... so please stay." Akira's eyes beg as much as his lips do and soon you can no longer resist his pleas.

"Akira, I don't know what to do," you whine as another tear trickles down your cheek. What did you ever do to deserve any of this. You were stricken with two of the worst possible mental diseases which hindered your ability to function every day. Sure, they could be worse, but you wish there could just be a day where you didn't have to worry about anything or fear for your own safety. Not only that, but you'd found out your mother was a drug addict and you had to stay with your abusive father for awhile before you went to jail. Now you have no family left to rely on.

Akira's heart aches for you, your response suddenly becoming his own reality. For the first time, he doesn't know how to make your tears cease, to make your worries wash away, to make you smile again. "What did your mother say?" he asks, attempting to at least understand more of the situation.

You can't look at his eyes anymore and push your head into his chest. "She said that she wants my forgiveness, and that she needs my help but... Akira, I'm so angry at her, I have never felt this way toward anyone before. It hurts because she has done so much for me, but I can't seem to bite my tongue," you explain.

The raven-haired boy lifts your head by the chin so you can't avoid his gaze again, he looks almost as hurt as you are. "You can't change how you feel," he says. But now it's his turn to look away from your eyes, his own trailing off to the side. "I would suggest going to pay her a visit... that is, if you're able to. But... sometimes seeing someone and having a conversation with them in person is a lot better than a phone call. Even if it's your voices over the phone, there's still a lot less communication going on than in person." He looks back to you. "Of course, that's just my suggestion, you don't have to. But maybe when you get your emotions in order, things might be better."

You take a deep breath and go to wipe your face, but Akira beats you to it and you feel ashamed for having cried like this in front of him. "I'm really sorry... you're always catering to me and my problems. I feel like I'm never there for you in return," you say.

Akira shakes his head and prevents you from saying anything further. "Shush... you're always there for me," he says. "And it's okay to cry," he assures you.

Normally, you wouldn't believe these things, but there's an aspect to his tone that reinforces his words and gives them some meaning to you. He's always been so... perfect. How does he bring himself to put up with you, you find yourself wondering.

You draw in a deep-- albeit shaky-- breath, but you can't seem to wipe away the crestfallen look from your face. But Akira seems to counteract it with the smile on his face, whose presence you can't understand. How does he smile in the face of adversity like that, you wonder.

When he leans forward to kiss you, you realize the answers to your questions. Perhaps this is how normal people cope with their sadness. Perhaps Akira is simply mentally strong enough to pull a smiling face for you even when he himself is as out of sorts as you.

Perhaps he is even facing more pain than you.

How that is, you can't be sure. But even the strongest of foundations will break with enough pressure, and you feel you may not be the only person weighing him down.


End file.
